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10 March 2003

Security Council Vote Pushed to Later in the Week

(Negroponte: We will not ask for a vote March 11) (730)
By Judy Aita
Washington File U.N. Correspondent
United Nations -- The United States will not ask the U.N. Security
Council to vote on its draft resolution on Iraq until later in the
week, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said March 10.
On his way to a private council meeting, Negroponte said "I think it
is highly unlikely that we'll have a vote on the resolution tomorrow
(March 11). What I intend to suggest to the other delegates ... that
we be prepared to vote on the resolution sometime later this week, but
not tomorrow."
U.K. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, whose government co-sponsored the
resolution along with the United States and Spain, echoed his
colleague's sentiment and said that the co-sponsors are working to
forge majority support for the draft resolution.
The three sponsors have amended the draft resolution they originally
put forward in late February. The amendment would set a March 17
deadline for Iraq to comply with Security Council disarmament demands.
France, China and Russia, permanent members of the council with veto
power, say they do not accept the compromise.
The draft currently says that "Iraq will have failed to take the final
opportunity afforded by resolution 1441 unless on or before March 17,
2003, the council concludes that Iraq has demonstrated full,
unconditional, immediate and active cooperation with its disarmament
obligations."
Six non-permanent members of the council, which are undecided on the
draft resolution, have urged the permanent members to compromise and
are working to that end. They are drafting their own amendment that
would change the deadline and include timelines for the completion of
each disarmament requirement.
The undecided members are Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Mexico, and
Pakistan.
Greenstock said that the resolution's co-sponsors are "working very
hard to see if there are proposals and continue to try and create a
majority in the council for a way forward."
Greenstock said that the United Kingdom delegation has "nothing to add
to draft resolution, no instruction to suggest any changes."
Negroponte said that U.S. officials are "still working to try to forge
the necessary support for the draft resolution."
"The most important point that I can make is that we remain convinced
that Iraq is not in compliance with its obligations under [Security
Council Resolution] 1441 and that if it fails to disarm peacefully it
will have to be disarmed by force. That is the essence of our
position," the U.S. ambassador said.
Negroponte said that he is also going to bring up the issue of Iraqi
experiments with unmanned drones with a range in excess of 150
kilometers.
The Iraqi activities were revealed in a new report being prepared by
the U.N. weapons inspectors on 29 "clusters" of unresolved Iraqi
disarmament issues in the fields of chemical and biological weapons
and missiles. Hans Blix, executive director of the U.N. Monitoring,
Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), gave council
members a first accounting of the 29 sets of issues in a report of
over 150 pages on March 7. The weapons inspectors are required to
present a report for the council by the end of March on the issues,
how they will be handled, and when those disarmament tasks could be
completed.
Negroponte pointed out that "paragraph 3 of resolution 1441 states
very clearly that Iraq has an obligation to declare various types of
vehicles and aircraft and so forth, including unmanned aerial vehicles
of all types. The fact that this was not initially declared is another
example of Iraq's failure to have told the truth with respect to its
holdings when it submitted its declaration on the 7th of December."
"In addition, it would appear that this unmanned aerial vehicle that
was discovered would have the kind of characteristics that would be of
great concern -- a capacity to fly beyond 150 kilometers and
configuration which suggests that it would be entirely capable of
carrying chemical and biological weapons," he said.
"When Secretary (of State Colin) Powell briefed the council on the 5th
of February he pointed to the fact Iraq had experimented and actually
taken one of these vehicles on a 500 km trajectory," Negroponte said.
"So we think this is a matter of serious concern."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)