World opinion was sharply divided on a new agreement with Iraq to resume weapons inspections, mirroring the fierce debate in the UN Security Council over what action to take over Baghdad.
The United States said it wanted to block their rapid return and insisted on a new Council resolution that would toughen inspections, while China and Russia said the weapons experts should begin their work immediately.
”This paves the way for the resumption of inspections in Iraq,” Russian foreign ministry representative Alexander Yakovenko said on Wednesday, a day after the deal was hammered out between UN and Iraqi negotiators in Vienna.
”The Iraqi representatives confirmed their agreement to all the inspection procedures covered under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” he said.
The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement:
”The priority is to let the United Nations weapons inspectors return to Iraq as soon as possible and smoothly carry out their work,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
”The Security Council’s actions on this matter should treat this as a goal, and should be beneficial to promoting a political resolution to the Iraq question under the United Nations’ framework,” it said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a hastily arranged press conference after the agreement was announced on Tuesday, said Washington did not want to see the inspectors return before the Council endorses a new resolution.
”We do not believe that they should go back in under the old set of resolutions and under the old inspection regime and therefore we do not believe that they should go in until they have new instructions in the form of a new resolution,” he said.
”I am convinced a new resolution is appropriate with tough consequences so we are not out here a year from now talking about this all over again,” Powell said, adding: ”Pressure works. We’re going to keep it up.”
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain, which has fully backed US President George Bush’s calls for tough action on Iraq, said he welcomed the work of chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix in negotiating the Iraqi deal.
”However this work is not an alternative to the high priority we place on a new and tougher resolution in the Security Council,” he said.
”No one should be under any doubt that any movement by Iraq is as a result of pressure from the UN and the credible threat of force.”
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking to a gathering of his Labour Party faithful in England, said a failure to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to abandon weapons of mass destruction would ”destroy” the UN’s authority.
”For all the resentment of America, remember one thing,” Blair said. ”The basic values of America are our values too, British and European, and they are good values — democracy, freedom, tolerance, justice.”
A representative from the British Foreign Office confirmed that a draft resolution prepared by London and Washington was under consideration by the other permanent Security Council members — China, France and Russia — who have absolute veto power over any such measure.
Elsewhere, the Gulf Cooperation Council — grouping Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — said it ”rejects a military attack against any Arab or Islamic country, including Iraq.”
GCC secretary general Abderrahman al-Attiya was quoted in the press saying that inspectors should return to Iraq as soon as possible ”to defuse the current crisis and pave the way for the implementation of UN resolutions.”
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said his country would not use its support for US action against Iraq as a bargaining chip in seeking a free trade deal with the United States.
”If we are involved in any kind of international political action with the Americans, it will be because that is the right thing to do and in the best interests of this country,” he said. ”I would never trade the two off.”
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayudha said Jakarta supports a new deal on weapons inspections between the United Nations and Iraq but hopes that Baghdad will be treated fairly.
”Indonesia supports the UN (arms) inspection team and Iraq asked Indonesia to facilitate the return of the inspection team,” Wirayudha said.
He added that Iraq ”deserves for a fair treatment and the respect for its sovereignty and dignity,” and said he saw no need for a new resolution.
Canada re-asserted its opposition to unilateral US military action. Foreign Minister Bill Graham said the Vienna agreement on the return of inspectors was ”a welcome step, but we have a long way to go.” – Sapa-AFP