Washington: US President George W Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
flew to New York for an unannounced meeting with UN chief inspector Hans Blix to
"acknowledge in a Security Council briefing on February 14 that Iraq has failed to
voluntarily scrap its prohibited chemical, biological and nuclear
programmes."
The visit coincided with a US and British proposal for a new Security Council
resolution that would formally declare Iraq in violation of its disarmament
obligations, "paving the way for a possible US-led military invasion of Iraq," a
media report said on February 12.
Rice's unannounced meeting with Blix underscored the Bush administration's concern
that the Swedish diplomats report to the Security Council on February 14, while
critical of Iraq, may not be decisive enough to persuade wavering Security Council
members to support an immediate move to war, 'The Washington Post' said quoting US
and UN diplomats.
Sources told the paper that Blix's report on February 14 will be much briefer than
the one he gave the Council on January 27 and that, as of today, will not contain a
declaration that Iraq is in clear violation of its obligations, which the US has
sought to justify going to war.
At the New York meeting, held at the US mission to the UN, Rice told Blix that Iraq
is in violation of a November 8 Security Council resolution that gave Baghdad
government "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" before it
would face "serious consequences", US officials said.
PTI
