Washington: As the UN arms inspectors reported to the Security Council that Iraq
was "not genuinely" accepting disarmament, the United States has stepped up pressure
on it to comply with the UN resolution 1,441, saying it did not have much more time
left to do so.
Iraq could still avert military action, but its opportunity for peaceful disarmament
was "fast coming to an end," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters on
January 27, after chief weapons inspector Hans Blix presented to his report on the
60-day search for Iraqi weapons.
Powell the Security Council to enforce resolution 1,441that gives Iraq a last chance
to comply with demands for disarmament.
The report of the UN inspectors showed that Iraq is not co-operating in implementing
the Security Council resolution, which calls for disarmament with active and not
passive co-operation, Powell said.
Iraq's non-compliance "continues to challenge the relevance and credibility of the
Security Council", Powell said. "To this day, the Iraq regime continues to defy the
will of the United Nations."
Iraq has only offered "empty claims, empty declarations and empty gestures" in
response to disarmament demands. "The Security Council and the international
community must stand behind 1,441," he said.
But Iraq could still avert "serious consequences", he said. "Iraq could answer this
afternoon, if it chose to," he added.
Powell also rejected calls for the arms inspectors to be given more time, saying it
would yield little because of Iraqi non-co-operation.
"The issue is not how much more time the inspectors need to search in the dark. It
is how much more time Iraq should be given to turn on the lights and come clean," he
said.
"The answer is 'not much more time'," he added.
Powell said the Security Council meeting later this week was not expected to decide
on the action to be taken against Iraq.
The action will come only after US President George W Bush consults with allies.
"These consultations this week are not for the purpose of determining what the next
steps should be," he said.
"I think we'll need more work and heads of state and government talking to one
another, and foreign ministers talking with each other, before one would make a
judgment as to what those next steps should be."
Powell also repeated allegations of linkages between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist
network.
"We have seen contacts and connections between the Iraqi regime and terrorist
organisations, to include al-Qaida," he said, adding the US was more confident of
that assessment now and would release information on the alleged linkages in the
near future.
PTI
