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Iraqi Parliament Rejects U.N. Resolution, Authorizes Saddam to Decide
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"There
is a unanimous position that the National Assembly cannot accept
the resolution, and will reject it," Hammadi said
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BAGHDAD,
November 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq's parliament voted
unanimously Tuesday, November 12, to reject U.N. Resolution 1441, but
decided to leave the final decision to President Saddam Hussein.
National Assembly
Speaker Saadun Hammadi announced the result on separate shows of hands
on both the rejection and the confidence in the President to make the
right choice, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
250-member parliament met for a second day to decide on a recommendation
from its Arab and international relations committee to reject Resolution
1441, despite a call from Saddam's elder son Uday to agree to the U.N.
text.
Hammadi
told the press shortly before the vote: "From what I can see, there
is a unanimous position that the National Assembly cannot accept the
resolution, and will reject it."
The
parliament must "also give the President the authority to deal with
the resolution and situation as he sees it," Hammadi added.
Uday,
who is a member of the parliament and a very influential figure in the
regime, earlier appealed to the assembly to agree to the stringent arms
inspection terms laid out in Resolution 1441.
In
the first clear signal that Iraq would yield to world pressure and allow
weapons inspectors to return, Uday said: "We have to accept the
U.N. Security Council resolution which is at the center of this
emergency session."
Acceptance
of Resolution 1441 should be "according to well-defined
limits", he said in a working document submitted to the National
Assembly.
Uday
called on the Arab League to provide an "umbrella" for Iraq,
and demanded that Arab experts be part of the disarmament teams from the
outset of their mission.
However,
he also warned that Iraq must take the initiative and launch an
"armed action" if diplomacy fails to resolve the disarmament
impasse.
"In
1991, we were not the ones who fired the first bullet, but we waited for
the first bullet to be fired by the other side, knowing the enormous
sacrifices which would result," he said.
"Now
we will give time to diplomacy to achieve the conditions" required
by Baghdad to agree to Resolution 1441.
"If
these conditions are not achieved we have to take the initiative of
rejection and of armed action against the side which intends us
evil," Uday warned.
"We
will not wait for the arrows to be fired in our direction to stand up
... We know that the Americans are cowards, perfidious and heinous. Thus
we have to make them miss the chance to take the initiative of
war."
MPs
queued up during the emergency session convened at Saddam's behest to
speak out against the U.N. resolution, which offers Baghdad a "last
chance" to come clean of alleged weapons of mass destruction that
the regime has repeatedly denies possessing since 1998.
The
Arab and international relations committee recommended rejecting the
U.S.-drafted resolution, which warns Iraq of "serious
consequences" unless it agrees to sweeping arms inspection terms.
At
the same time, the committee recommended mandating "the political
leadership to do what it deems fit to defend the Iraqi people" and
mandating Saddam to take the appropriate decision.
The
parliament's recommendation will now be submitted to the ruling
Revolution Command Council (RCC) chaired by Saddam, who has until
November 15 to give his verdict on Resolution 1441.
The
Iraqi leadership is officially said to be still "thinking
quietly" about what has been labeled a "bad and unfair"
resolution, hinting through state-run media that it might end up
accepting the harsh conditions it imposes in order to deny the United
States a chance to attack.
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