As the winds of war have been looming over Baghdad, a report said Sunday that Washington and London are drawing up plans to give Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as little as 48 hours to escape Baghdad or face war, as part of a second United Nations resolution.
Such a resolution could be put before the UN Security Council by next weekend if arms inspectors conclude in a key report on Friday that Saddam Hussein is still refusing to disarm fully of weapons of mass destruction, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
The deadline, according to the British paper, would be just long enough for Arab neighboring countries to make a last effort to convince the Iraqi leader to leave his country, according to US officials, or for a coup to take place.
However, a Downing Street spokeswoman downplayed the report, saying, "It is far too early to be talking about that sort of thing.
"We are where we are and we need to let the inspectors get on with what they are doing before we start going down the road of what a resolution would look like."
The Telegraph quoted a high-level Security Council diplomat as saying that Britain would put forward the resolution because the United States "does not want to be seen to need it".
In order to be passed, the new resolution would require the support of 9 of the fifteen Security Council members, assuming there was no veto from France, China or Russia. "The resolution being discussed would declare that Saddam is in material breach of UN resolutions, which authorizes the use of all necessary means to disarm him," the senior diplomat expressed. (Albawaba.com)
