Global Policy Forum

By Dusan Stojanovic

To avoid war with the United States, Iraq is ready to accept a new U.N. resolution on weapons inspections if it does not threaten the country's sovereignty, an Iraqi official said Tuesday.

The statement by Muhammad Mudhfar Al-Adhami, a ruling Baath party parliamentary deputy, was issued a day after President Saddam Hussein said Iraq would consider requirements of any new U.N. resolution once it had been approved.

"The announcement by the (Iraqi) president yesterday was very clear," al-Adhami told the Associated Press. "If the resolution dealt with the situation according to the United Nations conventions, and if it won't effect the stability and the independence of Iraq, and won't allow the American administration to launch an aggression against Iraq, we will deal with it."

In order to avert "an American aggression...we (would) now accept a reasonable resolution," he said.

Saddam's remarks were the first by the Iraqi leadership to indicate the government would not reject outright changes to the U.N. inspections regime.

As recently as Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri suggested Baghdad would oppose any draft U.S. resolution on U.N. weapons inspections, saying it would be "an evil American resolution" and tantamount to a declaration of war against Iraq.

The original draft U.S. resolution would strengthen U.N. weapons inspections, declare Iraq in "material breach" of its obligations to destroy weapons of mass destruction and threaten "serious consequences," presumably military action, if Baghdad fails to cooperate with inspectors.

Russia, France and China contend the United States could use the resolution to launch an attack on Iraq without getting Security Council approval. They want the possibility of force to be considered in a second resolution only if Iraq obstructs the inspectors. Council members expect a revised American text this week.

"I think they (Americans) will accept now the ideas of the French and the Russians," Al-Adhami said. "We will have to deal politically and diplomatically with this situation because we don't want war. We would like to avoid war"

The U.S. draft resolution gives Iraq seven days from the date of passage to accept its terms. Iraq would then have 30 days to declare its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs plus another 20 days to declare additional chemical stocks.

The resolution has been in the works since Iraq announced Sept. 16 that weapons inspectors would be welcome to return unconditionally after nearly four years.

"Iraq has generally accepted the inspectors," al-Adhami said. "Iraq feels there is no need for a new resolution, but if a resolution is taken by the United Nations helping the work of the inspection teams, we will deal with it."

"Americans, actually, know very well that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq ... so, when we accepted monitors back in Iraq, they started making obstacles in order to fulfill their task in Iraq -- they wanted a means of launching an aggression against Iraq," al-Adhami added.

By indicating the acceptance of the resolution, "we pulled the carpet under their (American) feet, as we say in Arabic," said al-Adhemi, who is also the head of Baghdad's College of Political Sciences.

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