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The Bush administration is seeking to transform the inspections process into a coercive operation
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LONDON, October 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Washington
revealed its intention to use U.N. weapons inspections as a possible
first step towards a military occupation of Iraq by sending in troops,
sealing off “exclusion zones” and creating secure corridors
throughout the country, a British daily reported Thursday, October 3.
According to a leaked proposal for a U.N. resolution drafted by the
U.S. with help from British officials, the “Bush administration is
seeking to transform the inspections process into a coercive
operation,” The Guardian reported.
“The resolution would place a full-scale invasion of Iraq on a
hair trigger, authorizing U.N. member states “to use all necessary
means to restore international peace and security” if Iraq does so
much as make an omission in the weapons inventories it presents to the
security council,” The Guardian said.
The daily said that the weapons inspectors would operate out of
bases inside Iraq, where they would be under the protection of U.N.
troops. U.N. forces or the forces of a member state would enforce no-fly
and no-drive zones around a suspected weapons site, preventing anything
being removed before inspection.
Diplomats at the U.N. said there was no doubt that U.S. troops
would play a leading role in any such enforcement, allowing the Pentagon
to deploy forces inside Iraq even before hostilities got under way, it
added.
Under the U.S. draft, security council member states could send
their own inspectors into Iraq to operate alongside the official U.N.
teams and these extra inspectors would have the “same rights and
protections accorded other members of the team.”
Member states could also “recommend” to the U.N. teams which
sites to search and how to do it. Iraqi officials could be taken out of
the country, along with their families, for questioning, in order to
remove the fear of Iraqi government reprisals, The Guardian
said.
John Pike, the head of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington military
think tank, said the resolution was worded in such a way that Iraq was
almost certain to reject it, even if the alternative was invasion.
“I could never imagine Iraq agreeing to this. If you’re going
to be invaded you might as well make the invading force shoot their way
in. It’s the sort of proposal meant to be rejected,” Pike said.
British experts worked alongside their U.S. counterparts at the
state department in the early stages of its drafting, but it was then
handed to the White House and the Pentagon, who added some of its
tougher elements, the daily said.
It was clear that London was uneasy with some items in the draft,
particularly the use of troops to quarantine suspect sites and to guard
the inspectors’ routes to the sites. One British official pointed out
that it was put within square brackets and could be jettisoned later, it
added.
Further anxiety about the U.S. position came from Chris Patten, the
E.U.’s commissioner for external relations. In a speech in Chicago
today he will say: “If the U.S. were to fall prey to the temptation to
act alone and outside the framework of international order, even for the
best of motives, it would be setting off down a very dangerous path.”
Diplomats in New York and Washington said it was clear there was a
split between the state department and the Bush administration’s hawks
over how far the U.S. should compromise, particularly over the threat of
force.
The French have proposed an alternative resolution, which would
make inspections tougher, but omits the authorization of military action
in the event of Iraqi intransigence or evasion, deferring such a
decision to a later resolution.
Resolution main points:
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The
U.S. (as a permanent member of the U.N. security council) can ask to
be present in any inspection team and thus gain access to any part
of the country
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The
inspectors can set up bases throughout the country. They will be
accompanied at those bases by soldiers under the U.N. banner
sufficient to protect them
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The
U.N. will have the right to declare no-fly, no-drive and exclusion
zones, ground and air transit corridors, to be enforced either by
the UN or by member states which could include the U.S.
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Iraq
must agree to free and unrestricted landing of aircraft, including
unmanned spy planes
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The
U.N. can take anyone it wishes to interview out of Iraq, along with
his or her family
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Any
false information provided by Iraq or any failure to comply with the
resolution would automatically entitle member states to use all
necessary means to restore international peace.
