Straw seeks ultimatum on Iraqi weapons

Britain yesterday pressed its case for a catch-all United Nations resolution obliging Iraq to meet a deadline for weapons inspectors to be re-admitted or face military action.

As an intense round of diplomacy continued in New York yesterday, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, told the international community that it could not always resolve conflicts by peaceful means. "The UN's authority has to be underpinned by the force of arms," he said.

But Mr Straw's appeal for support for the US-led position on Iraq – in which he warned that the UN itself could be "undone" by failure to take a tough stance against Saddam Hussein – was seen, too, as an attempt to calm fears that the US and Britain could take military action alone.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, the USA, France, Russia and China – are still deliberating on the content of any fresh resolution. Foreign Office sources indicated that there would be no draft while ministers were in New York, and discussions in the full Security Council are unlikely to begin until next week. The Ministry of Defence was also playing down talk of a speedy assault on Iraq, stressing "no decisions have yet been taken".

But such moves have done little to dampen down growing opposition to military action against Iraq, which will be debated in Parliament when it is recalled on 24 September.

In his speech, Mr Straw said the UN faced "three rising challenges" – failing states, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. As he turned to the issue of weapons of mass destruction, he cited the strength of international treaties and conventions against their production and use. But he said: "For the past three decades, this corpus law has ensured that – with one infamous exception – no states have resorted to these, the world's worst weapons. The exception is Iraq.

"No country has deceived every other country in the world as systematically and cynically as Iraq. And no country presents as fundamental a challenge to the UN as Iraq."

The Foreign Secretary reiterated warnings that the "international community cannot stand by and do nothing while Iraq continues to defy the UN". He added: "All of us who believe in the United Nations have to make our minds up now about how to deal with Iraq. For the authority of the United Nations itself is at stake.

"We cannot let Iraq do grave damage to this organisation and the international order it represents. We cannot let Iraq go on defying a decade of Security Council resolutions. If we do, we will find that our resolutions are dismissed by aggressors everywhere as mere words. We have spent 57 years building this organisation beyond a talking shop. We cannot let that be undone."

Mr Straw added that UN weapons inspectors must now be given "unfettered" access to Iraq. If it did not meet its obligations, clear consequences should be agreed.

Opponents to military action, expecting to read the contents of Tony Blair's dossier on Saddam Hussein's military capability ahead of a debate on the issue, have prepared their own anti-dossier which will be distributed to Labour MPs this week. Labour Against the War and the Stop the War coalition also plan to lobby MPs at Westminster.

There remains anger too that MPs will not be allowed a vote on the Iraq issue. But Alan Simpson, a leading opponent to military action and Labour MP for Nottingham South, said he would be urging MPs to vote against the defence estimates – which agree defence spending – when Parliament returns in the autumn as a show of dissent over any planned action against Iraq.