War drums fail to stir UN members

By EVELYN LEOPOLD in New York

As the United States and Britain put together a United Nations resolution authorising war, Iraq's neighbours called on the world yesterday to prevent a conflict in the Middle East and said UN inspections should continue.

During hours of speeches on the Iraqi crisis by UN members who do not have seats on the 15-nation Security Council, Australia and Japan strongly backed the tough US position, supported in part by Peru and Argentina.

The 23 other nations who spoke in the council, including New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, Ukraine, Belarus, Greece, India, Cuba and Middle Eastern countries from Iran to Algeria, were openly jittery about a war and backed further inspections, as France had proposed.

"All the countries in the region, with the exception of Israel, are appealing to prevent war on Iraq," said Yahya Mahmassani, the UN representative for the Arab League.

But Kuwait, which was invaded by Iraq in 1990, tempered its anti-war comments by faulting Iraq for continuing to challenge Security Council demands.

The meeting was organised by South Africa, head of the 115-member Non-Aligned Movement, to give nations without a seat on the council a chance to air their views.

A further 29 delegations will address the council today.

South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo opened yesterday's session by saying UN weapons inspections should be enhanced and become more intrusive before the United Nations ends them and considers other measures.

"We believe that resorting to war without fully exhausting all other options represents an admission of failure by the Security Council in carrying out its mandate of international peace and security."

But Australian Ambassador John Dauth said that given President Saddam Hussein's past actions, he was "not sure why we should be giving him the benefit of the doubt".

"The council could give Iraq more time, yes. We could wait until March. We could wait another three months," he said.

"But do we really think more time will make Iraq co-operate? Does Iraq really need more than three more months to make a decision that should take no more than three minutes?"

Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri appealed to members to listen to the "call of millions" who condemned war in demonstrations last weekend, but said "Iraq's sons, famous for their struggle against British occupation in the 1920s, will defend their country".

Reacting to the debate, US Ambassador John Negroponte told reporters he wanted to be sensitive to international opinion and hear what every nation had to say.

"But in the end I think our behaviour is going to be determined by our concern about the disarmament of Iraq and considerations of national security of our own country and that of others."

While the debate was underway, the United States and Britain worked on a new UN resolution seeking backing for an attack against Iraq, despite Security Council reluctance.

Negroponte said the US had not "ruled out putting down a resolution this week [but] we haven't ruled it in yet".

Prospects for achieving a quick and clean resolution authorising war dimmed last Saturday after chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix gave a more positive report than last month on the progress of his work in Iraq.

So far most council members support France, which means the US and Britain face an uphill struggle getting even the minimum nine votes needed for adoption.

The US has amassed 250,000 troops in the Gulf for an attack many analysts believe will come in the middle of next month.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: Iraq