BAGHDAD (REUTERS) — A leading Iraqi lawmaker told deputies Monday they should reject a new U.N. resolution on disarmament, and the leader of the assembly denounced the text as “a preamble for war.”
The two men were addressing an emergency session of the Iraqi parliament convened by President Saddam Hussein to debate the resolution calling on Baghdad to disarm or face possible military action.
But the final decision on the resolution passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council last week will lie with the Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq’s highest authority, which is led by Hussein. Debate in parliament was adjourned to Tuesday.
President Bush, dismissing any notion that the United States had territorial ambitions in Iraq, nevertheless warned Baghdad he would use the full force of U.S. military might if it did not comply with the resolution, which gives U.N. arms experts sweeping new rights and Iraq 30 days to submit a detailed list of its weapons.
“The dictator of Iraq will fully disarm, or the United States will lead a coalition and disarm him,” Bush said at a U.S. Veterans’ Day ceremony.
International attention focused on Baghdad, where parliamentary speaker Saadoun Hammadi said the Iraqi parliament would vote on a motion to reject the U.N. text and leave the final decision to Hussein.
Opening the parliamentary session, Hammadi blasted the resolution as a violation of international law and Iraq’s sovereignty.
“This U.N. resolution looks for a pretext [for war] and not for a comprehensive solution. It seeks to create crises rather than cooperation and paves the way for aggression rather than for peace,” he said. “It shows blatantly the ill intentions of the U.S. administration.”
Salim al-Kubaisi, head of parliament’s Arab and international-relations committee, told the assembly the committee recommended rejection of the resolution.
Hammadi said deputies would carry on the debate Tuesday morning but did not say when a vote would take place.
Oil prices climbed on market fears Iraq might reject the resolution. Traders bought futures heavily when Kubaisi recommended that parliament reject the resolution.
International benchmark Brent crude-oil futures stood 62 cents higher to $24.20 a barrel, while U.S. light crude gained 58 cents to $26.38.
Bush described the disarmament campaign against Iraq as part of the U.S. war on terrorism launched after the hijacked airliner attacks on the United States on Sept. 11 last year.
“Should military action become necessary for our own security, I will commit the full force and might of the United States military, and we will prevail,” Bush said.
Iraq has until Friday to accept the terms of a Security Council resolution demanding Baghdad allow U.N. arms experts unhindered access to any site suspected of producing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or face “serious consequences.”
In a front-page editorial, the ruling Baath party newspaper al-Thawra said the U.S. and its ally Britain had inserted “vague, vicious and misleading texts that give them room for maneuver to use them as pretext to attack.”
Nevertheless, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Monday he thought Iraq would “cooperate positively” with the resolution.
Disarmament inspections first started after Iraqi forces were expelled from neighboring Kuwait by a U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War. Inspectors withdrew in 1998 in a wrangle over access to Saddam’s palaces.
U.N. officials said an advance team of arms inspectors and technicians would leave for Cyprus late Friday if Iraq accepted the resolution.
The team, armed with a list of 100 priority sites, would then aim to arrive in Baghdad on Nov. 18, they said.
The U.S. military said American and British warplanes bombed anti-aircraft missile sites Sunday in the “no-fly zone” enforced by Washington and London in southern Iraq — the first such action since the Friday resolution was passed.
In a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency, an Iraqi military spokesman said civilian and service facilities had been attacked.
The resolution gives the Security Council a key role before any possible attack but does not force Washington to seek authorization for war.
U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Bush reserved the right to use force without Security Council approval if Iraq violated the resolution. But Washington would initially discuss with the Council the consequences of a breach.
U.S. officials said Bush had approved plans for the invasion of Iraq if it failed to comply fully with the resolution.
The plan, based on the lessons learned during the Afghan conflict, calls for the quick capture of Iraqi territory to establish forward bases that would be used to propel 200,000 or more troops deeper into the country.
Russia, which with France and China fought for amendments to an original U.S. draft resolution, said it hoped Iraq would comply, saying it was a chance to avoid military action.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder counseled Iraq to implement the resolution “letter by letter,” but repeated that German troops would not take part in U.S.-led attacks if Baghdad refused.
Arab foreign ministers endorsed the resolution Sunday but also called on Security Council members to ensure it could not be used as an automatic trigger for war.