Iraqi workers load a destroyed casting chamber for al-Samoud missiles

BAGHDAD, March 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq began Saturday, March 6, destroying six more Al-Samoud 2 missiles under U.N. supervision, while the U.S-British-Spanish proposal to set March 17 as deadline for Iraq to disarm or face military aggression was firmly opposed by veto-wielding countries Russia and France.

The destruction would raise to 40 the number of the missiles scrapped since the operation began on Saturday, March 1, as well as two combat warheads, one launcher and five engines, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The destruction of six new Al-Samoud 2 missiles started at 9:00 am (0600 GMT) at Al-Taji," a military complex north of Baghdad, information ministry director general Uday al-Tai said.

Chief U.N weapons inspector Hans Blix hailed on his progress report to the Security Council on Friday, March 7, Iraq's decision to embark on a program to destroy Al-Samoud 2 missiles as "substantial disarmament measure."

Until Friday, 34 Al-Samoud 2 missiles, including four training missiles and two combat warheads, have been destroyed since Saturday under U.N. supervision, he told the Security Council.

"Unjustified" Ultimatum

In a related development, the proposal made by the U.S, Britain and Spain calling on Iraq to disarm within 10 days or face war was met with flat rejection by Russia and France.

"These kind of ultimatums are unjustified," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told Russian reporters at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

"There is still a chance for a political resolution and we think it would be wrong and dangerous to ignore it. The other way is fraught not only with a high toll in human lives, but serious international consequences as well," he warned.

In an interview broadcast Saturday on Channel One television, Ivanov said an ultimatum was "unjustified, particularly now that the heads of the inspection teams have requested several months to complete their work."

He referred to Blix's call for giving inspectors more time in Iraq given the country's positive cooperation.

"It will not take years, nor weeks but months, ... we are not watching the breaking of toothpicks; lethal weapons are being destroyed," he said.

Russia therefore, "like several other countries, considers the (proposed) resolution pointless, it would not serve to reach a political settlement of the Iraqi situation," Ivanov averred.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov also vocalized Russia's firm intent not to let the deadline resolution pass the Security Council, where Russia holds veto power.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw put forward the March 17 deadline in a public council debate which erupted into a showdown among the permanent five members, as the United States and Britain lined up against China, Russia and France.

War Logic

Russia "considers the (proposed) resolution pointless, it would not serve to reach a political settlement of the Iraqi situation," said Ivanov

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, whose country also wields a veto in the world body, rejected Straw's amendment as strongly as he had the original draft resolution.

"France will not allow a resolution to pass which would authorize the automatic use of force," he said.

Behind the amendment "there is the idea of an ultimatum -- the 17th of March," Villepin said, adding this "is the logic of war. We don't accept this logic."

In an interview with the BBC Saturday, Straw further made his war case by saying the second resolution on Iraq will eventually be adopted.

"I believe that by the process of argument we can get to the point where we can have a second resolution," he told the broadcast from New York.

Asked if he thought U.N. Security Council members would adopt it, Straw replied: "I think we will at the end."

Villepin said the "idea of an ultimatum" represents "the logic of war. We don't accept this logic."

After a total of seven hours debate, the council adjourned until Monday, but the British ambassador to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock, told reporters: "I don't expect a vote earlier than Tuesday."

He refused to forecast whether the draft resolution would attract the nine votes required of the 15 council members, saying: "Nobody is going to give their full position before consulting their capitals over the weekend."

But diplomats here still believed that even if other council members were willing to declare that Iraq was complying with U.N. demands by March 17, Britain and the United States could use their permanent members' power to veto such a finding.

The inspectors' reports made clear there was "real disarmament" and that Iraq posed less of a threat to the world than it did in 1991, the year of the Gulf War, Blix said in the report.

Head of International Atomic Energy Mohamed ElBaradei stressed "there is no evidence or plausible indication" of resumed activity by Iraq to develop nuclear weapons, "the most lethal weapons of mass destruction."

But diplomats here still believed that even if other council members were willing to declare that Iraq was complying with U.N. demands by March 17, Britain and the United States could use their permanent members' power to veto such a finding.