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Pressure Mounts on Iraq After Saudi Support for U.N. Action
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
(3:51 GMT)
By Jonathan Wright
Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 16.
Image Credit: Chip East -- Reuters.

Rumsfeld said he did not know how quickly Baghdad could repair command and control buildings and military airfields now being attacked in the event that Bush ordered an invasion.

UNITED NATIONS -- Reuters
Pressure mounted on Iraq on Monday to comply with U.N. resolutions to disarm as the United States rallied diplomatic backing and Saudi Arabia made clear it would support internationally-sanctioned action.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said some Arab officials believe Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, under threat of possible U.S.-led military action, may be preparing to re-admit U.N. arms inspectors who left his country in 1998.

"During the last hours, some Arab countries had the feeling something was going on and that we may be expecting a speech by Saddam Hussein in the coming hours," Villepin told reporters.

Amid rumours of some kind of reaction or letter expected from Iraq, its foreign minister, Naji Sabri cancelled all appointments on Monday, diplomatic sources said.

Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "The political dynamic has changed and there's a great deal of pressure now being placed on Iraq to come into compliance with the U.N. mandates of the last 12 years."

Powell, following up on a tough U.N. speech by President George W. Bush last week, said he and other members of the 15-nation Security Council were working on a new resolution on Iraq to be completed "in the not too distant future."

The United States is lobbying for a strong U.N. resolution demanding that Iraq disarm, preferably with a threat of severe consequences if Iraq does not comply.

France wants a two-stage process -- with the first resolution demanding a return of arms inspectors and a second dealing with the potential consequences of refusal.

A U.S. official said the United States expected elements of a resolution to be drafted by Wednesday and wanted the measure circulated among Security Council members by Friday.

"People are putting pen to paper," one diplomat said, adding that talks among all 15 members would begin next week.

In another sign of extra U.S. pressure on Saddam, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that U.S. and British warplanes enforcing no-fly zones in north and south Iraq were taking a more active approach, methodically attacking air defences.

* STRIKES ON AIR DEFENSES
* NO UNILATERAL ATTACK
* CONCERN OVER THE COSTS
(More: Reuters.com News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

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