Mexico could
say no to US on Iraq
Mexican
President Vicente Fox assured on Thursday that
it was possible to say no to his US
counterpart George W. Bush over requests for
support for US policy on the Iraq crisis.
"Quite
frankly, no. We've built a friendship, a
special relationship, in political maturity.
Knowing we're neighbors and partners, we know
that always we have to speak the truth,"
Fox said in answer to a question from the
press on whether is it difficult to say no to
Bush.
Fox told local
television that Bush "is a real
friend" and that the United States is
Mexico's most important trade partner.
Also, he made a
call for world peace and the disarmament of
Iraq. He did not specify whether or not he had
already decided on Mexico's vote in regard to
the draft resolution presented to the UN
Security Council by the United States, Spain
and Great Britain, which would authorize a
military attack on Iraq. He did say he did not
anticipate reprisals should Mexico vote
against the United States.
Mexican Foreign
Ministry (SRE) sources reported that Fox
discussed with Foreign Minister Luis Derbez
the telephone conversations Derbez held with
the foreign ministers of Spain, Chile, France,
United States, Pakistan and Cameroon in recent
hours.
Fox reiterated
that Mexico's position is "definitely no
to war," which was the only way to
resolve the crisis, and that Mexico's vote is
not compromised.
Security
Council fails to reach consensus on Britain's
proposals
The
United Nations Security Council ended another
round of intense closed-door consultations
Thursday without any agreement on
Britain-proposed benchmarks to measure Iraq's
compliance with its obligations to disarm.
"So far we
have not yet been able to reach any kind of
understanding on that document, but the
process continues," US Ambassador to the
UN John Negroponte said of the "side
statement" to a US-British draft
resolution on Iraq.
"There
will be another round of informal
consultations at least tomorrow ... we're
willing to go extra miles," he told
reporters after the council ended the nearly
four-hour debate.
Negroponte
reiterated that Britain's proposals was backed
by Washington, saying: "we are very
supportive of their initiative." But he
quickly explained that Washington doesn't
"want to be committed to those proposals
in their entirety until we see what kind of
attraction they get with council
members."
"We don't
see any sense in committing to them fully and
finally if it turns out that other council
members are not interested."
Meanwhile,
Negroponte said there would be no vote on the
US-British draft resolution on Friday, which
gives a Monday ultimatum for Iraq to disarm or
face war. "We did not intend to put it to
a vote tomorrow, but it could be put to a vote
anytime thereafter," he said, adding that
the United States would respect the UN rule of
notifying other missions 24 hours before the
vote.
He reiterated
that the US-British draft resolution is still
on the table. "We have not taken it off
the table as at the moment it is still on the
table and is the only draft resolution,"
he said. Warning time is "running
short," Negroponte repeated his calls for
the United Nations to "meet its
responsibilities" to get Iraq disarmed.
In a desperate
attempt to win support for war with Iraq,
Britain on Wednesday proposed six tests for
Iraq to meet to show its cooperation,
including a demand for Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein to publicly admit concealment of
weapons of mass destruction and pledge to
disarm.
Britain
tries to defend proposal to enlist support for
draft resolution
British
ambassador to the United Nations Jeremy
Greenstock Thursday defended Britain's
proposal by arguing that the timetable of
resolution 1284 did not take into account the
primacy as did resolution 1441.
He said Britain
had made a "cardinal point" in its
proposal that "there has to be a sound
signal that there is a strategic change by
Iraq into full cooperation with inspectors
before we can get into a work program that
would be effective to complete
disarmament."
He said
establishing that strategic position is the
basis of the British proposal, adding that any
other approach is not going to work if it does
not take that into account. But he noted that
some council members would like to wait for
the work program to be submitted to the
council next week by chief UN weapon
inspectors.
Also on
Thursday, German ambassador to the UN Gunter
Pleuger said most council members are not for
a British proposal. "There is no majority
support for the British proposal," he
told reporters after almost four hours of
negotiations behind closed doors. He added
that the British proposal for benchmarks days
before the chief UN inspector is to submit a
work program "does not make too much
sense."
Greenstock said
Britain hopes discussions over the next few
days would produce something that would
"change the character of the debate into
something that achieves that sort of complete
disarmament."
When asked how
open the British are to amending its proposal,
he said they are ready to amend the proposal
if inspectors give them advice, but he said
Britain could see no reason for the moment to
change the area and number of the tests since
these are the basic proposal.
In a last-ditch
effort to muster support for a draft
resolution to force Iraq to disarm, Britain
Wednesday put forward a proposal, which
contains six concrete tests of Iraqi
compliance with the council's demands on
disarmament.
However, facing
mounting resistance, Britain offered to drop a
provoking paragraph in the draft saying Iraq
has lost "the final opportunity"
provided by resolution 1441.
One UN
inspector killed in Iraq road accident
A UN
weapon inspector was killed and another
injured in a road accident south of Baghdad on
Thursday afternoon, sources said.
The inspectors,
whose identities were not released at the
press time, were driving in a UN vehicle when
it hit a truck , they said. The inspectors
were returning to Baghdad after inspecting
theal-Noamaniya tomato canning factory, 50
kilometers south of Baghdad, according to the
sources.
One of the
inspectors was carried to a Baghdad hospital,
but died an hour later.
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For the
time being the situation will not repeat, as it had been threatened, it was
announced after members of the bargaining committee of the bus owners talked
wiht Transport Minister, Javier Chαvez.
