UN arms inspector to brief Security Council

Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix is pushing ahead with plans to send an advance team to Iraq this month, despite US demands that a tough new resolution be in place before they arrive.

Blix is scheduled to brief the divided UN Security Council later today on his agreement with Iraq for resuming inspections.

The closed-door meeting will be the first opportunity for all 15 council members to discuss the deal and the next steps for getting inspectors back into Iraq after nearly four years.

While the United States and Britain will demand that no advance party leave for Iraq until the Security Council agrees on a new resolution governing inspections, other council members – including Syria, Mexico and Mauritius - believe the inspectors can start work now under existing resolutions.

Russia, which is Iraq’s closest ally on the council, greeted the UN-Iraq agreement “with satisfaction”. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said it “opens prospects for conducting inspections in Iraq”.

Russia opposes a military operation in Iraq and had insisted that no new Security Council resolution was needed. But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said yesterday that Moscow was willing to consider whether a new resolution was necessary “for the efficient work of the inspectors”.

London and Washington, however, are demanding much more.

A toughly worded US draft resolution seen yesterday by The Associated Press would give UN inspectors broad new powers to hunt for weapons of mass destruction and provide them with military backing to carry out the search.

Under the proposal, the Security Council would give Iraq 30 days to compile a “complete declaration of all aspects of its programme to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons”.

If any “false statements or omissions” are made in the declaration, member states would be authorised to “use all necessary means to restore international peace and security in the area” – diplomatic language for military force.

The United States does not want Blix’s team to head for Iraq until the inspectors have “new instructions,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday.

“The fear here is that Iraq’s goal is to engage in a ploy so that they can drag this out before the world as they continue to build up their arms,” he said.

Blix said last week that he could have an advance team capable of conducting some inspections on the ground by October 15 if everything went well at his meeting with the Iraqis in Vienna.

UN diplomats said Blix was going ahead with those plans and expects to arrive in Bahrain on October 17 and Baghdad on October 19.

Blix is in charge of dismantling any chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles that Iraq possesses. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is responsible for nuclear inspections, will also brief the Security Council today.

A US official said the United States would make “perfectly clear” at the meeting that Blix needs a new resolution to begin inspections.

But Mauritius’ UN Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul reflected the division on the council, saying there was no need to wait.

“As long as we do not have an agreement on a resolution, we feel that there are enough (existing) resolutions which will allow the inspectors to carry out their work,” he said.

France has been floating a counterproposal which offers Iraq a chance to cooperate. But it warns that “any serious failure by Iraq to comply with its obligations” would lead to an immediate Security Council meeting to “consider any measure to ensure full compliance”.