Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Britain and US agree on tough new UN resolution over Iraq

David Usborne
Friday 27 September 2002 00:00 BST
Comments

In a significant breakthrough on the Iraqi crisis, Britain and the United States agreed tough language for a new United Nations resolution governing the return of weapons inspectors last night, and moved to head off opposition to the draft by dispatching senior officials to Paris and Moscow.

The fate of the new resolution was put in doubt, however, after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said inspectors could return without further action by the UN Security Council. "We favour a rapid resolution of the situation by political and diplomatic means, on the basis of existing UN Security Council regulations and in line with the principles of international law," he said. France is also balking at a resolution threatening military force.

The mission to France and Russia will be headed by the US undersecretary of state, Marc Grossman. He will be accompanied by a senior British official, sources said. A final version, with or without French and Russian amendments, is likely to surface in the UN Security Council early next week.

Agreed after days of internal wrangling in Washington – and between Washington and London – the new text is known to contain uncompromising language on Iraq. It accuses it of being in violation of existing UN resolutions and warns of dire consequences – code for an invasion – if Iraq does not comply with its disarmament obligations.

International jitters over the risks of war deepened after a warning from a former UN inspections chief that Israel could resort to a nuclear response if it was attacked by Iraq. "The Prime Minister of Israel has said it will not be restrained, that it will respond," Richard Butler said. "My deepest fear in that context, if that occurs and the war escalates, is that Israel will use its nuclear weapons."

As Britain and the US continued their stepped-up air raids inside the Iraqi "no-fly" zones, Iraq accused US and British planes of destroying a radar system at the Basra civilian airport in southern Iraq. But the Pentagon said the target was a military radar which was destroyed.

The effort to sell the new text began instantly and will continue at the weekend. The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, rang foreign ministers Igor Ivanov of Russia and Tang Jiaxuan of China last night. He spoke to his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, on Wednesday.

Britain and the US are expected to submit a tidied-up version to the UN on Monday. Even if Russia and France agree to include a threat of force, it is unlikely that China will and negotiations could drag on for days.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in