Iraq considers UN resolution

The Iraqi parliament was convening in an emergency session today, called by President Saddam Hussein to consider a response to a UN resolution and a day after Arab ministers urged Baghdad to cooperate with weapons inspectors.

The session of parliament, which is stacked with Saddam’s allies, starts at 1600 GMT, Iraqi officials said. It will be closed to the media.

Parliament’s response to the new UN resolution, which demands Iraq cooperate with inspectors hunting for weapons of mass destruction, will be a recommendation to the Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq’s major executive body headed by Saddam.

Should the council recommend acceptance, Saddam would have some cover for retreating from previous objections to any new resolution governing weapons inspections.

Iraq has until Friday to accept or reject the resolution, approved unanimously by the UN Security Council last week. It threatens Iraq with “serious consequences” unless it co-operates.

Iraq has insisted on respect for its sovereignty, an argument it has used in the past to restrict access to Saddam’s palaces.

If Saddam fails to follow through, US officials have said a Pentagon plan calls for more than 200,000 troops to invade Iraq.

US and British aircraft, enforcing a no-fly zone in southern Iraq, yesterday fired precision-guided weapons at two surface-to-air missile sites near Talil, 175 miles south-east of Baghdad, in response to Iraqi hostile acts.

There was no word from Baghdad on the strike, and the US military said damage assessment was ongoing.

In Baghdad, the state-run al-Jumhuriya newspaper today urged Arab governments and people to “stand firm against US aggressive schemes” against Iraq and the Arabs. In a front-page editorial, the newspaper called on Arab governments to use oil as a weapon against the United States and Britain.

Saddam has called on Arab oil exporters to boycott the West before, but Gulf oil producers say such a move would be impractical and not in their interest.

In Cairo, foreign ministers of Arab League nations ended a two-day meeting with a final communiqué that seeks to avoid US-Iraq confrontation.

It urges Iraq and the United Nations to work together to implement the resolution and calls on the United States to commit to pledges it gave Syria that the resolution could not be used to justify military action.

“In our deliberations, the consensus was to deal with the Security Council resolution, accepting its direction, and this is left for the government of Iraq to decide,” Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said last night after the meeting ended.

The Arab ministers put forward a united position of ”absolute rejection” of any military action against Iraq, saying it represents a threat to the security of all Arab nations – a view Iraqi officials have pressed in recent lobbying of fellow Arab leaders.

They also demanded Arab experts be included on UN weapons inspection teams, but did not specify numbers or nationalities, and called on the Security Council to require Israel to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction.