Archives

The United States is sticking by its March 17 deadline for Iraq to comply with council demands on disarmament, the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, said Wednesday.

But he told reporters that his government might be willing to allow "a modest extension" if Security Council members backed new British proposals to set out six concrete tests of Iraqi compliance.

"It would be a very, very brief extension indeed," Negroponte said after the council ended three hours of intense consultations behind closed doors.

Negroponte thanked his British counterpart, Jeremy Greenstock, for his "unstinting efforts to mobilise support" for a draft resolution to force Iraq to disarm.

But he noted that the British proposals were still "a non-paper" and said:

"Our resolution is the only resolution on the table and we have not backed away from our March 17 deadline."

Negroponte denied that he was opposed to the British proposals.

"We are not rejecting it, we commended it to the consideration of our council colleagues," he said.

But the US ambassador prefaced his remarks with the assertion that because of "numerous omissions" in its December 7 arms declaration and "repeated violations" the United States believed Iraq "to be in further material breach" of council resolutions.

"The time has come for the Security Council to enforce its resolutions," he said. "Iraq must come into compliance immediately and without delay."

Greenstock's spokeswoman, Catherine MacKenzie, said March 17 was "a very credible deadline" when the draft was submitted on March 7.

But "time has clicked on since then," she told reporters. "We recognise that there is some limited give on that." 

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager