Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has called an emergency session of parliament to debate the new UN Security Council disarmament Resolution 1441, state television reported Sunday.
"President Saddam Hussein has ordered the convening of an urgent session of the National Assembly to discuss Security Council Resolution 1441 issued on November 8, debate the position (that should be taken) on it and submit its conclusions to the (ruling) Revolution Command Council," it said.
In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, dismissed the prospect of Saddam seeking the parliament's advice as "ludicrous."
"Saddam Hussein is an absolute dictator and tyrant, and the idea that somehow he expects the Iraqi parliament to debate this — they've never debated anything else," Rice said Sunday. "I'm surprised he's even bothering to go through this ploy."
Rice added she was "very skeptical" that Saddam would meet all the terms of the resolution unanimously adopted by the U.N. Security Council on Friday. "We have to have a zero-tolerance view of the Iraqi regime this time," Rice said during a television interview.
"The next material breach by Saddam Hussein has got to have serious consequences. I think it's pretty clear what that may mean," she said. "The (U.S.) president has made no secret of the fact that he intends to use force if the Iraqis cannot be brought into a compliance in other ways."
President Bush reserves the right to use force without Security Council approval if Iraq violates the resolution, she aired. But Washington would initially discuss with the Security Council the consequences of any breach.
Rice predicted the council would treat seriously any material breach and that any military action would be done in "a quite multilateral way." "They are not accepting the resolution, they're simply acknowledging, because they don't have a right to accept or reject," she said. (Albawaba.com)
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