- BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Parliament met in emergency session Thursday on the
crisis over U.N. weapons inspections, while American efforts to secure
support foundered. China and France were balking and Russia declared it
"shall not allow" a military strike against Iraq.
-
- Russian President Boris Yeltsin, directing
unusually critical remarks at President Clinton for the second straight
day, renewed warnings that threatened U.S. bombing raids on Iraq could
spark a world war.
-
- "We must not allow a strike by force,
an American strike. I told Clinton about it: No, we shall not allow that,"
Yeltsin said in Moscow.
-
- China stressed its opposition to a U.S.
attack in a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and French
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told Europe 1 radio that France would not
participate. "It would not resolve the problems," he said.
-
- Despite the growing opposition to military
action, a third U.S. aircraft carrier sailed into the Persian Gulf Thursday,
bringing along a submarine and four other ships. The USS Independence,
with its 75 aircraft, joins the USS Nimitz, the USS George Washington and
the HMS Invincible, a British carrier.
-
- The Independence had arrived to relieve
the Nimitz, Cmdr. Gordon Hume, a Navy spokesman, said in Bahrain. For now,
it appears the Nimitz will remain in the region. The Navy has nearly 20
combat ships carrying more than 20,000 sailors and Marines in the region.
-
- Iraqi lawmakers said Parliament will
hold off, probably until next week, on any of its own initiatives to give
the high-level diplomacy under way a chance to resolve the crisis.
-
- Diplomats from Russia, France, the Arab
League and Turkey were in Baghdad trying to persuade Iraq to end its impasse
with the United Nations over weapons experts' access to presidential palaces
and other sites. Iraq says inspections at those sites would violate its
sovereignty.
-
- The inspectors must certify Iraq has
eliminated its weapons of mass destruction before the United Nations will
lift tough economic sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The invasion led to the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq says it has complied, but inspectors
say it is still hiding information and material for biological and chemical
weapons.
-
- In Beijing Thursday, Chinese Foreign
Minister Qian Qichen emphasized his nation's objections to the use of force
against Iraq, as Washington is threatening should diplomacy fail.
-
- "China is extremely and definitely
opposed to the use of military force because its use will result in a tremendous
amount of human casualties and create more turmoil in the region and even
could cause new conflicts," Qian said on state-run television.
-
- In 1990, China was the only one of the
five permanent Security Council members - the others are Britain, Russia,
China and the United States - not to authorize military action against
Iraq.
-
- Vedrine, the French foreign minister,
said of diplomatic means toward ending the crisis: "One must not think
that it's all over."
-
- Albright and Washington's U.N. ambassador,
Bill Richardson, have been lobbying Security Council members and Arab allies
in support of a possible military strike against Iraq. Only Britain has
given unequivocal backing.
-
- On Wednesday, Yeltsin warned that a strike
against Iraq could lead to "world war." The president's aides
scrambled to clarify his remarks, saying there was no prospect of Russian
military retaliation. Yeltsin repeated the comment Thursday, though he
has not explained his reasoning.
-
- Yeltsin also claimed the peak of the
crisis was over and that Russian diplomatic efforts were winning more support.
-
- "I'm an optimist. One still cannot
say with certainty that everything is all right," he said. "But
the pinnacle has been cut down somewhat."
-
- Throughout the standoff, President Saddam
Hussein and his ruling party have used the largely powerless Iraqi Parliament
to put forth initiatives or convey threats. Its session Thursday appeared
overshadowed by the diplomatic efforts in Baghdad and elsewhere.
-
- Saad Qasim Hammodi, head of the National
Assembly's Arab and international committee, said Parliament members first
wanted to see the results of the high-profile mediation under way. Parliament
then would meet next week to consider a course of action.
-
- "The members are now convinced the
United States is trying to find a pretext to launch a military aggression,"
he said. "The United States is looking for a cover, not the truth."
-
- He said Iraq had made moves and offered
initiatives to solve the dispute but added: "The United States was
not responsive."
-
- Iraq reportedly has offered to allow
U.N. inspectors access to eight disputed sites for about a month - a plan
U.S. and British officials already have said does not go far enough.
-
- In the gulf, British Foreign Secretary
Robin Cook visited Saudi Arabia, a key Western ally, as part of an effort
to line up support for an attack. He planned to travel to Kuwait later
Thursday.
-
- Speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh,
Cook said that no compromise can be made on the issue of inspections. "If
the U.N. inspection regime is going to work, it must be unconditional,"
he said.
-
- During the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq fired
39 Scud missiles at Israel, but it heeded a U.S. request not to strike
back. Secretary of Defense William Cohen said the United States again would
"prefer very strongly" that Israel not retaliate for any new
Iraqi attack.
-
- Israeli leaders, however, have indicated
they would not heed such a request again.
-
- By The Associated Press
|