"The issue of a second, a third or a fourth resolution on Iraq is not relevant today," Ivanov

LONDON, February 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Ahead of a crucial report, Friday, February 14, by chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, growing divisions within the UN Security Council will make it harder for Washington to win a resolution backing war on Iraq, the British press said.

The U.S. and Britain, keeping the pressure firmly on Iraq, have said that evidence was mounting of Baghdad's refusal to give up weapons of mass destruction, the Financial Times said Friday.

However, France, Germany and Russia have opened what the paper called "acrimonious divisions" by insisting that weapons inspectors should be given more time to ascertain exactly what Saddam has.

"The split, which has led to damaging disputes within NATO and the European Union, has thrown into doubt the prospect of Washington quickly winning a new Security Council resolution to authorize war on Iraq," the FT said.

European divisions with Britain and the U.S. will be "painfully exposed" when the Security Council meets in New York later Friday, the anti-war Independent said.

Whatever the divisions, the general mood of the press was that the key to what happens next in the Iraqi crisis lies with Blix and the verdict he delivers Friday on Baghdad's cooperation with weapons inspections.

"Everything now depends" on Blix's 20-minute report, said The Times.

"At stake is the future of the UN and NATO, which have safeguarded international security for more than half a century, but are in danger of becoming obsolete," it added.

But senior British government officials told The Daily Telegraph that only a dramatic change of attitude by Saddam Hussein would hold Washington and London back from tabling a resolution for military action in the coming days.

A Security Council source, quoted by The Guardian, said that a new resolution would "light the fuse" for war and could contain a deadline, possibly as short as 48 or 72 hours, for full Iraqi compliance.

Blix's report will give credit to Iraq for allowing more access to inspectors and for addressing some of the complaints he raised last month, but it will also stress that serious problems remain, a UN source told the paper.

Iraq's request for advance notice of U-2 spy plane flights, not enough - nor open enough -- interviews with Iraqi scientists, and failure to hand over new documents on banned weapons will be Blix's main bones of contention with the Baghdad regime, The Guardian said.

Although Blix will confirm the verdict of ballistic specialists that Iraq breached the UN will by testing Samoud-2 missiles beyond their permitted range, he will say the fact is not that significant, it added.

No New Resolutions Needed 

“Not everyone around the world is prepared to take the word of the United States on faith," Chretien

Meanwhile, Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov as saying in New York Friday that there was no need for a new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The issue of a second, a third or a fourth resolution on Iraq is not relevant today," Ivanov told the agencies upon his arrival in New York, to attend the crucial meeting scheduled later Friday.

"We already have resolution 1441, and the main objective now is to see that it is fully implemented," Ivanov added, calling on the international community to show unity in dealing with the Iraqi crisis.

France, Russia and Germany on Monday formed a united front against U.S. calls for war against Iraq, calling in a joint declaration for the stepping up of weapons inspections as the best way to ensure Baghdad's disarmament.

UN Must Decide on Iraq
   
On Thursday, February 13, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien cautioned the United States against a unilateral strike on Iraq, saying the UN needed to approve any military action to avoid a deepening rift in the international community.

Speaking on the eve of the key meeting at the United Nations, Chretien stepped up the rhetoric against its southern neighbor, warning that the Bush administration needed to rethink its strategy to "avoid the perception of a clash of civilizations.”

"The whole world," he told a gathering of business leaders, "hopes that Saddam Hussein will act even at this late hour in a way that will spare his people untold suffering."

"If Saddam Hussein refuses to comply with the wishes of the world community, then the world will respond."

But war must be a course of last resort, and any use of force must be legitimized by the United Nations, he told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

As "frustrating and difficult," as that option might be, it would "immeasurably" strengthen the hand of America and its supporters, Chretien argued - and possibly even win over its doubters.

"The price of being the world's only superpower is that its motives are sometimes questioned by others. Great strength is not always perceived by others as benign. Not everyone around the world is prepared to take the word of the United States on faith."