Facing almost certain defeat, the United States and Britain signaled Tuesday they would agree to a short extension of a deadline for Saddam Hussein to disarm or face war - but a 45-day delay proposed by six swing council nations appeared out of the question.
The Bush administration had talked of a vote as early as Tuesday, but with France and Russia threatening to veto the current draft resolution, and without the minimum nine "yes" votes, it held up action in the council.
Earlier, Cameroon's Ambassador Martin Belinga-Eboutou announced that he and five other ambassadors from key council nations - Mexico, Chile, Angola, Guinea and Pakistan - would suggest an even longer deadline of 45 days and the addition of benchmarks that Saddam Hussein would have to meet to avoid war. But U.S. officials rejected the proposal.
Canada, which has been instrumental in influencing undecided members of the Security Council, called for a three-week ultimatum for Iraq to comply with U.N. demands.
"It's not going anywhere, there's only one resolution on the table," one U.S. official said. Britain's UN Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said Tuesday the March 17 deadline could be extended but not by 45 days.
Britain is "prepared to look at time lines and tests together, but I'm pretty sure we're talking about action in March. Don't look beyond March," he told CNN.
Under the British proposal, Saddam would have 10 days to prove Iraq has taken a "strategic decision" to disarm.
In Baghdad, president Saddam Hussein Tuesday gathered officials from Iraq's elite Republican Guard to advise them to limit sacrifices and inflict heavy losses among enemy ranks in the event of war with US-led forces.
Saddam "advised them to exercise utmost efforts to limit sacrifices among the ranks of the fighters and inflict the largest losses among the aggressors," the state news agency INA reported.
The Iraqi leader was speaking to officers from the Republican Guard, headed by his younger son, Qusay Saddam Hussein.
"The most important advice for you is to limit your losses in the battle, and this is a quality of a good leader. "The good leader is not the one who achieves his objectives at any price, but he would be a good leader if he achieves his objectives with the minimum sacrifices," he said.
Meanwhile, U.N. arms inspectors suspended U-2 reconnaissance flights over Iraq for safety reasons after Baghdad complained two aircraft flying simultaneously was a hostile action. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
