NEW
YORK, October 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq Sunday,
October 6, opened the door to a new UN Security Council resolution on
arms inspections, as the world body prepared for a week of bargaining
after a U.S. warning that war may already be unavoidable.
Mohammed
Aldouri, Iraq's Ambassador in New York, said Baghdad would be willing
to consider a new resolution. "We are not rejecting any
resolutions of the Security Council," he told the U.S. television
network ABC. "We will see these resolutions. First of all to have
this resolution in our hand, and after that we can conclude," the
ambassador said.
U.S.
President George Bush cranked up the pressure this weekend with a
stark warning that war may be unavoidable. "The danger to America
from the Iraqi regime is grave and growing," Bush charged in a
weekly radio address Saturday, October 5.
"The
use of force may become unavoidable," he said, accusing Iraq of
having defied the international community ever since the 1991 Gulf War
over Kuwait.
However,
the Washington Post reported Sunday, that war may still be averted
because U.S. intelligence experts believe Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein will be ousted by members of his inner circle before U.S.
forces launch a major ground attack.
Faced
with a U.S. military assault and the choice of either being Saddam's
successors or being imprisoned or killed, top-ranking officers or
senior officials will likely try to eliminate the Iraqi leader,
current and former U.S. officials and intelligence experts told the
daily.
Bush
also urged the U.S. Congress to support a measure authorizing the use
of force to disarm Iraq, while telling the United Nations to set tough
conditions to keep the heat on Saddam to comply with new arms
inspections.
"By
supporting the resolution now before them, members of Congress will
send a clear message to Saddam: His only choice is to fully comply
with the demands of the world ... Supporting this resolution will also
show the resolve of the United States, and will help spur the United
Nations to act," Bush added referring to the U.S. and British
diplomatic drive for a Security Council resolution which has run into
Chinese, French and Russian resistance.
Bush
claimed the world body risked becoming "irrelevant" if it
failed to quickly back his plans, and his administration has said it
has the right to act even without Security Council authorization.
In
contrast to the U.S. stand, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said
Saturday that a first group of UN weapons inspectors was due to leave
for Iraq on October 19.
"It
is important that this departure goes ahead on the scheduled
date," he added.
While
the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council have
not reached agreement over how to deal with Iraq -- especially with
the American insistence on bombing Iraq -- the UN chief arms inspector
Hans Blix has been forced to delay the return of disarmament
inspectors.
Washington
and London want to send Blix to Iraq but only with a strong new
mandate, that will facilitate a military action against Iraq.
France,
however, is insisting on two resolutions, with only the second
specifying the use of military force.
After
a week of intense diplomacy, the United States and Britain still lack
sufficient support to pass a single resolution and may be forced to
agree to the French proposal, US and UN officials said.
EU
foreign policy chief Javier Solana Saturday also opposed the
U.S.-British policy of seeking a regime change in Iraq and called for
the rapid return of arms inspectors.
Solana
said the Security Council had to be given time to work. "We hope
very much that in the foreseeable future we will have a solution from
the United Nations."
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Even Israeli pacifists are against unjustified war on Iraq
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Apart
from the apparent easing of its stand in New York, Baghdad continued
Sunday to lobby for support among Arab neighbors which Washington may
use as launch pads for any attack.
In
the Gulf, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri moved onto Oman after
talks in Bahrain with King Hamad who said he was "satisfied"
that Baghdad had agreed to the return of arms inspectors after a
four-year break.
As
part of a diplomatic offensive to persuade Arab neighbors to at least
remain neutral if Washington attacks, Sabri is also due to visit Qatar
and the United Arab Emirates.
Deputy
Prime Minister Tareq Aziz goes to Syria on Tuesday and then on to
Lebanon.
Amid
heightened tension in the region, a boat packed with explosives rammed
and badly holed a French supertanker off Yemen on Sunday, a week
before the second anniversary of the attack on the U.S. warship Cole,
the French embassy said.
Iran's
President Mohammad Khatami said a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq posed
a greater threat to the Middle East than Baghdad's alleged pursuit of
weapons of mass destruction.
"The
most serious danger is the great powers' unilateral steps based on the
use of force to change the face of the region and the destiny of a
country through military intervention," Khatami said.
In
Ankara, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit warned his country could consider
a military response to a possible independence bid by Kurds in
neighboring northern Iraq after a U.S. invasion.
"Our
eyes will be fixed on northern Iraq and we will take the necessary
measures even if the slightest negative development emerges,"
Ecevit said in a television interview carried by the state news agency
Anatolia.
