The Bush administration believes that it is one vote shy of having nine of 15 votes needed on a UN Security Council resolution giving Iraq an ultimatum to disarm, CNN quoted two senior U.S. State Department officials as saying Wednesday.
These officials said the administration would focus its diplomatic energies on Mexico and Chile to secure their backing, and that the U.S. is confident it has the support of the three African members of the Security Council - Cameroon, Guinea and Angola - despite a visit this week by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin to lobby for support opposing the resolution.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "I wouldn't deny that we are making progress but I don't want to mislead you into thinking that we've got it in the bag."
"We stay fixated on the rule that you don't count your chickens until the cows come home," he told a briefing. Boucher was referring to Angola, Cameroon and Guinea, as well as the other undecided members -- Chile, Mexico and Pakistan.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte emphasized repeatedly that the U.S.-British-Spanish resolution that would give Saddam a March 17 ultimatum was the only formal resolution before the council.
But he said Washington could accept a "very, very modest extension" of the March 17 deadline. Diplomats said this could be March 21, or possibly March 24. "Before we embrace it in its entirety, we want to see how other council members feel about it," Negroponte said. "If we find it unfruitful to pursue, we are not going to pursue it."
With a vote expected by the end of the week, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "We are indeed in the final stages of diplomacy and in these final stages the President (Bush) has gone the extra mile. "That extra mile will come to an end and the time for diplomacy will come to an end. And the only question that will remain is: 'Has Saddam Hussein disarmed?,"' he said.
Despite U.S. insistence on a U.N. vote on Friday, new British proposals could push any decision on a resolution authorizing war with Iraq past that date, Security Council diplomats told Reuters.
On Wednesday, Britain circulated six tests to Security Council members that Saddam Hussein had to fulfill to avoid war.
Should undecided nations agree to the proposals, British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock was reported to have told council members his country would not hold them to a Friday vote, according to participants in the meeting.
"I got an immediate warm response from those six members of the council," Greenstock said. "If this works it is only way through. Unless you use this repair job, the hole in the ship will sink the ship." (Albawaba.com)
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