Facing March 17 deadline, Iraq crushes more missiles

BAGHDAD/UNITED NATIONS: Threatened with a March 17 deadline to disarm, Iraq destroyed more of its banned missiles yesterday in a process Washington dismisses as too little, too late to save it from war.

An attack on Baghdad could come even sooner than March 17, the date set down in a draft UN resolution which is the subject of frenetic diplomatic haggling this weekend. If the resolution fails to win the backing of the UN Security Council, Washington and its allies might well go to war earlier. Iraq’s state-controlled media accused the United States and its closest ally Britain yesterday of dragging the UN towards the “abyss” by refusing to acknowledge Baghdad’s disarmament moves.  More than 200,000 troops are in the Gulf and appear to be ready to strike. Gates wide enough to allow a column of tanks to pass are being rapidly installed in the fortified fence between Kuwait and Iraq.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain said yesterday war could still be avoided but insisted it was only the tens of thousands of Western troops massing on Iraq’s borders that had wrung concessions from Baghdad. “The only reason we have got any cooperation at all out of Iraq is because of the credible threat of force,” he said. Straw told the BBC he believed the draft resolution giving Iraq until March 17 to disarm could get through the Security Council, despite bitter opposition from some members. He called on the 15 nations to “face up to our responsibilities”.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Friday the vote would take place next week. His UN ambassador, John Negroponte, told reporters it could come “from Tuesday onward”. France, Russia and China, who hold veto power in the council, maintained their opposition to any new resolution that would implicitly or explicitly authorise military action. Deputy foreign minister Yuri Fedotov hinted yesterday Russia might use its veto. “Russia will do everything not to allow this resolution in the UN Security Council,” he said. The revised draft resolution reads: “Iraq will have failed to take the final opportunity... unless on or before March 17, 2003, the council concludes that Iraq has demonstrated full, unconditional, immediate and active cooperation with its disarmament obligations.”

Modifying the resolution by extending the deadline for Iraqi compliance was intended to win over undecided nations Chile, Pakistan, Mexico, Angola, Cameroon and Guinea. But none gave any indication they had been persuaded. “The cost of delay in our view will be much less than the cost of war,” said Pakistani ambassador Munir Akram. Angola’s ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins said: “If that is what it looks like, then my first reaction is that it’s not a very good draft.” Analysts say US promises of economic aid to the “undecided” may yet succeed where argument has so far failed.

US President George W Bush has vowed to take military action with or without UN approval. But going to war without UN endorsement would inflame a global anti-war movement and threaten the political future of important allies, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Lobbying of council members by Washington is expected to be intense over the weekend and early next week. In an effort to prevent the United States winning over the minimum nine votes needed for adoption of a resolution, France is doing the same. De Villepin plans quick trips to Guinea, Cameroon and Angola. The Security Council heard presentations from chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday.

ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, disputed US assertions that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium in Niger, saying the documents used by Washington to support its contention were fraudulent. Blix faulted Iraq for moving too slowly and not handing over enough documentation on past weapons programmes, but said it had carried out a “substantial measure of disarmament” by starting to scrap al-Samoud 2 missiles, whose range exceeds UN limits. “We are not watching the breaking of toothpicks. Lethal weapons are being destroyed,” he said.

Challenging Blix, Powell said: “I know these are not toothpicks, but real missiles. But the problem is, we won’t know how many missiles there are, how many toothpicks there are.” Iraq began crushing six more of the missiles yesterday, continuing a process Powell earlier this week called “too little, too late”. Iraq’s UN ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, poured scorn on the deadline. “So they will give us only ten days to give up all we have? We have to dig all of our desert? Really, this is nonsense. We are doing our utmost. We can’t do more,” he said.