11 March 2003
White House: U.N. Vote on Iraq Will "Take Place This Week"
(Bush continues to consult with world leaders) (780) By Wendy S. Ross Washington File White House Correspondent Washington -- President Bush March 11 continued to phone world leaders to discuss Iraq and the diplomatic discussions taking place at the United Nations Security Council on the amended U.S.-British-Spanish draft resolution, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters. That amended resolution sets March 17 as a deadline for Iraq to fully disarm. Bush began his day with a phone call to Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Fleischer said, and was expected to continue his consultations with other leaders throughout the day. Angola is one of the ten non-permanent members of the Security Council. "[W]e are still in an important diplomatic phase in New York," Fleischer said. "The consultations with our allies are ongoing, and they are important. The resolution, as amended, is not set in stone, and the conversations are productive. The president has encouraged this diplomacy to take place. But what the president has said is that there is room for a little more diplomacy, but not a lot of time to do it." Fleischer said the vote "will take place this week," but when asked if the United States would be able to accept a new deadline for Iraqi disarmament if the council were to set one, Fleischer said "Well, this is part of the diplomacy that's under way, and we'll see what the date is, if there is a different date. That's part of the diplomacy that's under way." President Bush, he said, thinks "any suggestion of 30 days, 45 days is a non-starter." Asked if Bush would be willing to accept the concept of benchmarks -- specific tests for Iraqi compliance -- being built into the resolution, Fleischer said that "the ultimate outcome of the diplomacy is unknown at this moment, in terms of what the exact language will be of the amendment that is put forward for a vote. That's the topic of the diplomacy that's under way now." Asked about France's declaration that it will veto any resolution that permits the use of force against Iraq, Fleischer said, "When it comes to the disarmament of Saddam Hussein, it is too risky to have a laissez-faire attitude about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. This remains an important matter for the United Nations Security Council and its 15 members -- to take a stand on whether resolutions at the U.N. are to have meaning." Fleischer said it matters whether the ten rotating members on the Security Council support immediate disarmament, and they will have their opportunity to do so, in the form of a vote. "So," he said, "this remains an important test of the United Nations Security Council, and a chance for these nations to show that, while they serve as rotating members of the Security Council, they stand for giving resolutions meaning and impact." "If the moment comes and a coalition of the willing is assembled because the Security Council was met with a veto, then I think there will be a broad coalition of many nations that speak many languages, all working shoulder to shoulder to disarm Saddam Hussein," Fleischer said. He reminded reporters that President Bush has made clear that "one way or another Saddam Hussein will be disarmed. His preference is to do it through the United Nations Security Council. This gives these nations an opportunity to say that, despite a veto, the United Nations Security Council spoke." Asked about the AP news report that Iraqi fighter jets threatened two American U-2 surveillance planes, forcing them to abort their mission and return to base, Fleischer said he was looking into the report. But he made clear that under Security Council Resolution 1441, passed unanimously by the council in November, "Iraq is required to unconditionally and in an unrestricted manner accept all the terms of UNMOVIC," the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission. At U.N. headquarters a UNMOVIC spokesman confirmed that the two U-2 reconnaissance flights, flown by the United States on behalf of the U.N. weapons inspectors, were operating simultaneously in Iraqi airspace. "Although Iraq had been notified of a flight time window they expressed surprise and concern that two flights were operating simultaneously," UNMOVIC spokesman Ewen Buchanan said. "In the interests of safety, UNMOVIC requested the aircraft to withdraw." Buchanan said that further U-2 and Mirage flights are being planned by UNMOVIC. Under Security Council resolutions, the U.N. weapons inspectors are to be allowed to undertake reconnaissance flights without restrictions from Iraq. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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