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Iraq I: London Considers Dropping Deadline in Exchange for Benchmarks The United Kingdom late yesterday offered to drop a deadline for Iraq to demonstrate full compliance with inspections from its draft U.N. Security Council resolution if council members agreed to a list of six disarmament “benchmarks.” Meanwhile, the Bush administration indicated today that it would agree to delay a vote on the draft resolution until next week (see GSN, March 12). Even without a deadline, the resolution would still contain a threat of “serious consequences” if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not comply, according to the Associated Press. “This is a trial balloon, if you like, to see whether this is a way out of our current difficulties ... to see if we can keep the council together,” said British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock (Dafna Linzer, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, March 13). The United Kingdom has proposed six disarmament tasks. They include: * requiring Hussein to publicly acknowledge that Iraq has previously attempted to conceal weapons of mass destruction and that it will now fully comply with disarmament; * making at least 30 Iraqi WMD scientists available for private interviews with inspectors outside of Iraq; * surrendering all anthrax and anthrax-production capability or providing credible evidence for their previous destruction; * destroying all prohibited al-Samoud 2 missiles and illegally imported SA-2 missile engines; * fully accounting for unmanned aerial vehicles and remotely piloted vehicles; and * surrendering all mobile chemical and biological laboratories (BBC News, March 13). John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said yesterday that he “commended the proposal” to the council for consideration, but the United States would wait for council members’ reactions “before we embrace it in its entirety” (Linzer, Associated Press). The United Kingdom has proposed the benchmarks in an attempt to further increase support within the Security Council for the draft resolution. The White House said today that U.S. President George W. Bush was willing to delay a vote on the new resolution if such a move would further help increase support. “It may conclude tomorrow. It may continue into next week,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. “The president is willing to go the extra mile for a diplomacy. There is a limit on how far he’s willing to do,” he said (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, March 13). Some senior White House officials have said, however, that they doubted that the Security Council would approve any new resolution. “I just think the whole thing is a fool’s chase. We’re not going to get a resolution,” a senior Bush administration official told the London Telegraph. “The French and the Russians will veto. It doesn’t matter what changes you make, the question is how long this is going to drag on, how much further political heat we’re going to take,” the official added (Toby Harnden, London Telegraph, March 13). The United States appears to have the support of at least eight Security Council members, according to the Wall Street Journal (see GSN, Feb. 27). The latest indication of support came from Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who told Bush yesterday that, while it will be difficult politically, he is ready to support the resolution. Eight votes, however, is still one less than needed for the resolution to be approved by the council. U.S. officials hope that even a simple majority will provide enough moral authority for the United States to proceed with military action even if the resolution is vetoed by France or Russia, the Journal reported (Wall Street Journal, March 13). France, a permanent council member and a staunch opponent of war, indicated today that it does not support the new British proposals of disarmament tasks and a possible extended compliance deadline (see GSN, March 6). The British proposals “do not respond to the questions the international community is asking,” French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in a statement. “It’s not about giving a few more days to Iraq before resorting to force but about resolutely advancing through peaceful disarmament,” he added. Weapons inspections inside Iraq are “producing results” and France supports all council members that want to “give Iraq a realistic delay for reaching effective disarmament,” de Villepin said (Associated Press/Yahoo.com, March 13). The United States has criticized France’s public threat that it will veto a new resolution, saying such a stance will make peaceful disarmament less likely. “Unfortunately, President [Jacques] Chirac has said that no matter what, they’re going to veto the resolution. I suppose that factor needs to be taken into account by all those who are proceeding here,” U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. “But, frankly, saying that he’ll veto the resolution no matter what sends precisely the wrong signal to Baghdad, precisely the wrong signal for those who want peaceful disarmament,” Boucher added (Barry Schweid, Associated Press II/Yahoo.com, March 13). Russia, which has threatened to veto earlier proposals, said today that it was still considering the British proposals and has not yet made a decision. “We are not talking about the vote yet, we are still discussing proposals from different nations, and it is still unclear what resolution we are talking about,” Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said. “Until we have a draft resolution on the table, it’s premature to say how Russia will vote,” he said (Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, March 13). Iraqi Drone Meanwhile, U.N. officials conceded yesterday that they had made a mistake when they said Iraq had not disclosed a recently discovered drone. In a report provided to Security Council members last week, the drone was described as having a wingspan of 24.5 feet and as being previously undeclared. U.N. officials said, however, that Iraq had declared the drone and had described its wingspan as about 13 feet, not the actual 24.5, which led to some confusion among those who prepared the U.N. report. The error was corrected in a letter sent Feb. 18 to inspectors, said Iraqi Air Force Gen. Ibrahim Hussein. “When a man is to prepare a lot of documents or to write a lot of things, it is quite natural that he makes some kind of typing mistakes," Hussein said (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, March 13). FBI Investigates Fake Iraqi Nuclear Information The FBI has begun an investigation into a set of fraudulent documents that purported to show that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from Niger, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, March 10). Officials are trying to determine if the phony documents were intended to influence U.S. policy or were meant to be part of a disinformation campaign conducted by a foreign intelligence service, the Post reported. “It’s something we’re just beginning to look at,” a senior law enforcement official said yesterday. “We’re looking at it from a preliminary stage as to what it’s all about,” the official said (Priest/Schmidt, Washington Post, March 13). Inspections U.N. inspectors visited at least one suspect Iraqi site today, according to Reuters. They traveled to al-Taji to supervise the destruction of al-Samoud 2 missiles (Reuters, March 13). Yesterday, inspectors visited at least six suspect Iraqi sites, according to a U.N. press release. Biological experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission visited al-Baghdadyia Co. for Juice Industry and the Iraqi Dairy and Ice Cold Products Company. UNMOVIC chemical inspectors visited the That al-Suwavi Co. International Atomic Energy Agency experts visited two sites in connection with the use of radioisotopes — the Saddam Center for Cancer and Medical Genetics Research and the Saddam Neurosciences Center in Baghdad (U.N. release, March 12). For further information, see:
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