- (AFP) -- The five permanent UN Security Council members
met to discuss Iraq as Russia warned the United States against making "
unacceptable" demands on Baghdad.
-
- Moscow hopes that a new US-backed resolution on Iraq
"will not contain any unacceptable elements from the old American
proposals," ITAR-TASS quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov
as saying.
-
- "Moscow would not like a new draft resolution to
contain provisions authorizing the automatic use of force against Iraq,
or unfeasible requirements which might lead to new crises and tensions
in the country," he said, according to Interfax.
-
- US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that Washington
will present a new proposal this week that threatens unspecified consequences
against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime should it fail to offer
unfettered access to weapons inspectors.
-
- Russia has stressed that the sole objective of a new
UN resolution should be to ensure the rapid return of weapons inspectors
to Baghdad.
-
- Washington has run into opposition across the world for
its threat to go it alone against Baghdad if it sees fit.
-
- Oil prices fell to a one-month low as traders scaled
back their expectations of a US-led attack on Iraq amid signs the Security
Council was nearing a compromise resolution.
-
- Reference Brent crude oil for December delivery slumped
1.07 dollars to 26.77 dollars a barrel here in late trading.
-
- As ambassadors from the five permanent Security Council
members began their talks on the issue in New York, a group of young anti-war
demonstrators invaded the UN General Assembly chamber.
-
- The group sat in the public gallery chanting "no
war in Iraq, end of sanctions, no attack" until they were expelled
by security guards.
-
- Meanwhile the top commander of US forces said on a visit
to Ankara that he had made no demands of close ally Turkey over the politically
sensitive question of using its military bases for any attack on neighbouring
Iraq.
-
- "We have not made requests with respect to the Turkish
air space or air base," General Tommy Franks said after talks with
top Turkish military officials.
-
- Ankara, a key NATO ally, currently allows US and British
planes to use an air base for enforcing a no-fly zone in Iraq, but it remains
deeply opposed to any attack on its southern neighbour.
-
- Franks also insisted the United States had made no decision
about a possible strike against the Iraqi regime, considered by Washington
to be part of an "axis of evil" developing weapons of mass destruction.
-
- Turkey fears Kurds in northern Iraq could take advantage
of a US invasion to expand their control to the Kirkuk oil-producing region,
paving the way for future independence -- which could embolden separatists
among Turkey's own sizeable Kurdish population.
-
- The support of both Turkey and Kurdish groups in Iraq
is seen as essential to US intentions to topple Saddam's regime.
-
- In Kuwait US, Kuwaiti, German and Czech forces on Monday
conducted a mock drill in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare to increase
the emirate's level of preparation in the event of retaliation from neighbouring
Iraq if Washington were to launch a strike there.
-
- In London, a spokesman for one of the main Iraqi opposition
groups, the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC), said the US army
is planning to train at least 5,000 of its members.
-
- The INC spokesman, who declined to be named, told AFP
he had held talks on the training programme with Pentagon officials in
Washington last week.
-
- Russian officials also confirmed that chief UN weapons
inspector Hans Blix will travel to Moscow on Tuesday for a private visit
which will also see him hold talks with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
-
- Blix's visit coincides with a mission in Moscow led by
US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
John Bolton, as part of a US campaign to see Moscow agree to the new resolution.
-
- Blix has said UN weapons inspectors are ready to start
work in Iraq within 10 days of the Security Council adopting a resolution.
-
- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
which will work alongside Blix's inspectors, meanwhile urged the United
States and other countries Monday to give weapons inspection a chance to
succeed.
-
- Writing in the Washington Post, IAEA director general
Mohamed El-Baradei also called on the Iraqi government to fully cooperate
with weapons inspections.
-
- "I would make a twofold appeal: to the government
of Iraq, to provide the absolute cooperation that the world is demanding;
and to the international community, to give inspections a chance before
resorting to other alternatives," El-Baradei wrote.
-
- In Baghdad, the Iraqi cabinet stressed in a meeting chaired
by Saddam that "nothing justifies the adoption of a new resolution."
-
- "We warn against the adoption of a new resolution
contradicting the agreements with the UN secretary general (Kofi Annan)",
and Blix, an official spokesman said after the meeting.
-
- Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. All information
displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence
you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any
way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the
prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
