Global Policy Forum

By Julia Preston

The United States formally presented the full Security Council today with a draft resolution that includes a threat of military action against Iraq, sharply increasing the pressure on France, Russia and China to agree to a tough measure to force Baghdad to disarm.

The administration's step followed six weeks of wrangling among the five veto-bearing members of the Council that did not yield agreement on linking a proposal for tough weapons inspections in Iraq with a threat of military force to back them up.

The United States submitted its draft to all 15 Council nations to show its reluctant allies, France and Russia, that it had sufficient support among the 10 other members.

American diplomats calculated, but without any guarantees, that neither France, Russia nor China would veto the latest resolution. But the move today forced the pace and put pressure on the five to decide soon how they would vote.

"You're either with us or against us" was the message that Washington was sending to the other permanent members, an administration official said today.

France, supported by Russia, has opposed the American draft because it includes a legal basis for a military attack if Iraq fails to disarm. France has favored a two-stage approach, which would leave the authorization of force to a second resolution, a position Russia and China favor.

The United States action today came after France and Russia, and less forcefully China, criticized the American proposal yet again in closed negotiations on Tuesday.

American officials said they were carrying out a strategy that Mr. Bush outlined on Sept. 12 when he first challenged the United Nations to confront Iraq, saying that if the world organization would not act to disarm Iraq, the United States was prepared to do it alone.

American diplomats argued that the negotiations among the five veto-bearing countries were among the most arduous ever for a resolution. American and British diplomats insisted they had made significant concessions to the complaints from France and Russia in the draft they presented on Monday. Britain will co-sponsor the resolution.

"The moment has come to give an added sense of urgency to this question," said the American ambassador, John D. Negroponte.

The draft presented today underwent only minor modifcations in negotiations since late Sunday.

The full Council will return for discussions on Friday, and decided today to meet on Monday with Hans Blix, the head of the United Nations weapons inspections team, extending the negotiations into next week.

The Russian ambassador, Sergey Lavrov, made an unusual display of irritation as he went into the meeting. Visibly angry, he said he was "preoccupied with the real problem," the hostage crisis in Moscow.

"That's the sort of real threats we experience these days," Mr. Lavrov insisted, suggesting that the threat posed by Iraq's weapons programs was less immediate.

He said Russia opposed the American draft because it still included an automatic authorization for the use of force and imposed "unimplementable, unrealistic" demands on inspectors and Iraqi officials.

When asked if Russia had assured the United States that it would not use its veto, Mr. Lavrov said: "The short answer is no. But this was never discussed."

He dismissed suggestions by American diplomats that his views did not represent the thinking of President Vladimir V. Putin. "In case someone has any doubts, what I'm presenting in the Council is not an invention of my own," he said.

The closed meeting this afternoon with all 15 Council members was the first time the 10 rotating members, who do not hold vetoes, had officially seen the United States draft. They have complained openly about being excluded from the talks, and American officials said today's move was in part to mollify them.

Under the terms of the United Nations Charter, a Council resolution is adopted by nine votes in favor and no negative vote from the five permanent members. As they emerged today with the text in their briefcases, the nonpermanent ambassadors were noncommital.

Making an informal count, administration officials said they were confident of the support of Bulgaria, Colombia, Guinea and Norway and believed they could secure the votes of Singapore and Cameroon. Syria and Mauritius were expected to vote against it. As a result, Ireland and Mexico emerged as pivotal votes.

Mexico, whose president, Vicente Fox, has enjoyed a warm friendship with President Bush, has been frustrated with the lack of progress with the administration on immigration and other bilateral issues. Mexico has very vocally backed France's demand for the two-stage approach.

Moments after meeting tonight with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Mexico's foreign minister, Jorge G. Castañeda, spoke positively of the new draft, although he said he had not read the very latest version.

"We think that with the French, the Russians and the Chinese, we have been able to generate important progress on the issue of two stages," he said in a telephone interview from Los Cabos.

Secretary Powell, who is also in Mexico for an economic conference of Asian and Pacific nations, said the new draft was a product of the United States having "listened carefully" to suggestions from other countries. He said the United States would listen to any proposed changes as long as they did not violate the objective of threatening "consequences" against Iraq.

"It's not a fiat that we have put down," he said, but he did not specifically say the United States would make any further changes.

The permanent members have the choice of voting in favor, abstaining or vetoing. With the support of Britain assured, American officials were calculating that if they secured seven votes from nonpermanent members, France would almost certainly acquiesce in the final hour. The last time that France vetoed an American resolution was in 1956.

President Bush is to meet on Friday at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., with President Jiang Zemin of China. He is also to speak on Saturday with President Putin at the meeting of Pacific rim nations in Mexico.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.