After years of Iraq defying UN demands, President Bush is advocating a tough new UN resolution aimed at pressuring Saddam Hussein to destroy his weapons of mass destruction. However, Bush must first convince the rest of the UN Security Council to accept the resolution, or face disarming Saddam without the support of the international peacekeeping organization.

For more than a decade the world has lived with the question of whether Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction, and now with new information linking Iraqi officials to the al Qaida terrorist network, the threat of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons being used in a terrorist attack has never been greater. President Bush has proposed that the United Nations Security Council issue a new resolution with stricter provisions for the inspection of Iraq's arms programs and the option of using military action to enforce the resolution should Saddam not comply.

After the Gulf War, the UN Security Council, believing that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, approved a resolution for inspections into Iraq's weapons programs. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein initially agreed to these inspections, but failed to fulfill their requirements, and the inspectors left Iraq in 1998. Ever since, the UN has imposed a series of unsuccessful sanctions on Iraq, but now, President Bush is calling for a stricter resolution that will require Iraq to allow UN inspectors unrestricted access to its arms programs and to any site where Hussein might be hiding weapons, including his numerous presidential palaces that were formerly off limits to the inspectors.

According to the new resolution Bush is advocating, Saddam will have seven days to agree to the resolution and then thirty days to reveal all of his weapons programs, but if he refuses to allow the inspectors back into Iraq or falsifies any information concerning his arms programs, then the situation may be resolved by "any means necessary." The US is not alone in demanding this latest resolution. The United Kingdom also supports a tougher stance on Iraq, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair has recently released a report substantiating their claim that Iraq not only has a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons but is also in the process of acquiring a nuclear bomb. Nevertheless, the other three permanent members of the Security Council, each with the power to veto this resolution, remain skeptical.

The Council is made up of 15 member nations, ten of which are temporary members of the Security Council for two year terms. The other five members of the Council are permanent members. They include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Security Council is responsible for drafting and passing the UN resolutions intended to settle international conflicts through negotiation, sanctions, or "any means necessary" including military action. According the UN Charter, each member state of the United Nations is required to comply with the decisions of the Security Council, but in order for a resolution to pass the Council, it must receive at least nine yes votes, and any of the five permanent members has the power to veto a resolution, thereby blocking its passage.

In spite of the persistence of the US and UK, the remaining three permanent members have not been easily convinced of the need for this new resolution. While China and Russia both agree that Saddam should abide by the terms of the current UN resolution by allowing inspectors back into Iraq, neither is in favor of the tougher resolution or the prospect of using military action to enforce it, and France's President, Chirac, has proposed a separate two step resolution. The first resolution concerns allowing inspectors back into Iraq, and if Saddam refuses to comply, the Security Council can then draft a second resolution dealing with the consequences. While the members of the Security Council are attempting to reach a consensus concerning Iraq, Saddam has continued to denounce all reports that his government possesses weapons of mass destruction, and in a surprising announcement he even agreed to allow the inspectors back into the country under the old resolution but not with unrestricted access to its weapons facilities and palaces that Bush has requested.

The UN inspectors have agreed to delay their return to Iraq until the Security Council has reached an agreement on the new resolution. However, even if the US is unsuccessful in convincing the Council to implement a more stringent resolution, it remains possible that the US and it allies will employ military force against Iraq without the backing of the United Nations. Which makes the organization designed to promote international peace and security seem nearly irrelevant.

Volume B Issue 10 October 2002 Copyright 2002 Gx Webzine All Rights Rsvd.

Volume B Issue 10 October 2002
Copyright 2002 Gx Webzine All Rights Rsvd.