National News

Vote on arms resolution delayed, but Britain will 'hold firm' on Iraq

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said March 12 he was "determined to hold firm" on Iraq, a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was "unclear" if British troops would join a war against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Blair - who has been U.S. President George W. Bush's staunchest ally on Iraq - acknowledged that "it's true that the United States could go it alone."

But he reiterated that he was working "flat out" to put a new Iraq resolution to a vote at the U.N. Security Council - even if France and Russia have said they would veto such a motion.

"What is at stake here is not whether the U.S. goes it alone or not, but whether the international community is prepared to back up the instructions it gave to Saddam Hussein" to give up weapons of mass destruction, said Blair.

"The worst thing that could happen is for him (Hussein) to defy that will (of the U.N.) and then for no action" to be taken, he said, in a clear criticism of France and Russia.

The White House wants the U.S.-British-Spanish resolution authorizing war if Iraq does not disarm by March 17 put to a vote in the 15-nation U.N. Security Council. But doubts persist whether it could receive the nine votes needed to pass the measure, which could face a triple veto from France, Russia and China. So far, apart from the three cosponsors, only Bulgaria has said it will support the draft resolution.

Consequently, Britain sought to amend the resolution to lengthen the ultimatum, perhaps to March 21 or March 24, diplomats said, and to add specific disarmament demands for Iraq to meet.

Blair confirmed his government would present to the United Nations "a very clear set of tests" for Hussein to avert a war.

Those tests could include demands to account for bulk quantities of anthrax, the deadly chemical agent V, chemical weapons shells, bombs and munitions, and to allow U.N. interviews with scientists outside Iraq, as well as to produce unmanned drone planes or evidence that they have been destroyed.

Another test would be for Hussein to go on television to publicly renounce chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, a government official said.

Bush has made it clear he feels free to order an invasion of Iraq with or without U.N. backing and the White House indicated impatience with the diplomatic maneuvering.

"The Security Council needs to stand up, give him (Hussein) a very clear message that he needs to disarm, that he has days, not weeks, to disarm," U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in a radio interview March 12.

"We'ｖe lost ground in trying to find a diplomatic solution because the world has not spoken with one voice," she said.

Iraq's government underlined its commitment March 12 to respect U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, the official INA news agency reported.

Shukan ST: March 21, 2003

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