America Seems to Submit A Revised Resolution to the UN Security Council

The UN resident diplomats said on the 17th that America would make a compromise and submit it as soon as possible since the objection of few permanent members of the UN Security Council including France was not subsiding to the existing strict Resolution against Iraq that included military actions.

Although America pursued a single resolution, which insisted to strongly ask Iraq to accept weapons inspection and disarmament, and to start military actions if they did not respond, France held fast to a proposal that said to do the resolution for strengthening weapons inspection as the first step, and allow the military actions against Iraq as the next step.

America, considering this atmosphere, announced that she retreated that if there would be no voting to go to the second step, she would not say anything about military actions at the first step.

The news sources analyzed that it was because France, Russia, and China, which had the right to veto for taking the Security Council Resolution, were not cooperative with America and the objection of the world were even stronger.

The New York Times reported on the 18th that a French diplomat also said, “The chance for negotiation with America looks much bigger than before.”

This newspaper pointed out that the ‘cliff hanging diplomatic operation,’ which was continued between America and France about the content of the Resolution against Iraq seemed coming to an end.

The US Ambassador to the UN, John Negrofonte said about that on the 17th, “America will submit the new Resolution, which contains the ‘clear and immediate’ requests to Iraq, to the UN Security Council.”

The Ambassador Negrofonte said at the ‘Security Council Open Discussion about the Iraqi Problems,’ “The new Resolution will clearly state the detailed violation of the Security Council Resolution obligations by Iraq, give new (inspection) options to the UN Weapons Inspectors, and state what ‘consequences’ will be followed if Iraq disobey this.” He did not say in detail what the ‘consequences’ actually meant.

He also said, “America want it is not necessary to use force (against Iraq),” and quoted the saying of the US President Bush, “If Iraq refuses to disarm, America will lead an alliance (for military attack) to disarm Iraq.”

konihong@donga.com