K E R A L A M O N I T O R - International News IRAN: UNDP Launches Water Project, Warns Of Future Floods IRAQ: U.S., Chief U.N. Inspector At Odds Over March Arms Report;
With chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix proposing more time for inspections and a second briefing to the Security Council on March 27, the Bush administration prepares today to pressure the 15-member body to reject Blix's plan and instead make the Jan. 27 briefing on Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction the final one.
A March 27 briefing would hew to the schedule set forth in a 1999 Security Council resolution that requires quarterly reports to the council and paves the way for the possible suspension of U.N. sanctions against Iraq. It would also upset the U.S. timetable for a potential military confrontation during relatively cool weather.
The permanent members of the Security Council are divided on the issue of the March report, with Russia and France standing by the legitimacy of the 1999 resolution and the United States and the United Kingdom maintaining that the November 2002 resolution trumps the older one (Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Jan. 16).
A Washington Post editorial today criticizes Blix for overstepping his bounds by reactivating 1999's Resolution 1284. "His motive is obvious: He would like to head off U.S. military action at any cost, even though such action clearly has been justified by Iraq's failure to comply [with Security Council demands to disarm]," the editorial says. "Mr. Blix is entitled to his opinion; but his job is to implement, not reformulate, the Security Council's decisions" (Washington Post, Jan. 16).
Today International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei signaled he intends to ask the Security Council to extend the inspections schedule by "several months" (Associated Press, Jan. 16).
Meanwhile, despite the objections of other nations, the United States is indicating that it might attack Iraq whether or not weapons inspectors produce hard evidence that Saddam Hussein is manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, the New York Times reports.
U.S. President George W. Bush is likely to make a strong case against Iraq in his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, one day after Blix and ElBaradei make their Jan. 27 briefing to the Security Council. On Jan. 31 Bush will meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Camp David.
The U.S. posture runs counter to that of other countries. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov condemned unilateral action against Iraq as "capable only of worsening the already difficult situation in the region," and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said the world "must speak and act through the U.N. Security Council."
U.S. officials continue to make preparations for possible military action, asking NATO to help in the event of a war by defending Turkey and sending Patriot antimissile systems, along with 600 troops, to Israel (Stevenson/Sanger, New York Times, Jan. 16).
The Pentagon said yesterday that the first group of Iraqi exiles who have volunteered to serve with U.S. military forces are beginning to report for training at a secret location.
The United States has also offered U-2 spy planes, which provide high-altitude surveillance, to the U.N. weapons inspection effort. The team has accepted the offer but not flown the planes yet. The Iraqi government has reportedly sent a letter to the United Nations complaining about the use of the U-2 (Robert Burns, AP/Yahoo! News, Jan. 15).
Inspectors Visit Iraqi Scientist At Home
U.N. experts today visited two private homes and left with one of the residents after a six-hour visit and an animated conversation with Iraqi liaison officers, AP reports. One of the residents, a physicist, drove with inspectors to an agricultural area, where the group looked for a few minutes at what appeared to be an earthen mound. It was the first time inspectors had extended their search beyond the public sphere and a possible indication that they are operating with new intelligence (Hamza Hendawi, AP/Yahoo! News, Jan. 16).
Cyprus Accepts Request To Host War Relief; Turkey Builds Tent City
The United Nations approached Cyprus and asked it to serve as the center for a relief operation in the event that the United States leads an attack against Iraq, to which Cyprus has agreed.
"We have no problem offering [Cyprus'] geographical position or other things needed to evacuate people (from Iraq)," said Demetris Hadjiargyrou, a senior Cypriot official (Alexia Saoulli, Cyprus Mail, Jan. 16). Turkey has begun preparing to build a 24,000-tent camp near its border with Iraq in case of a refugee crisis following war (Agence France-Presse/ReliefWeb, Jan. 15). keralamonitor.com
U.N. Compensation Commission Pays $600 Million
The U.N. fund that pays victims of the Gulf War today made nearly $600 million available to 17 governments and one international organization, which will distribute the money to 327 claimants. That brings the overall amount paid by the U.N. Compensation Commission to more than $16 billion (U.N. release, Jan 16).
LEBANON: Annan Calls For Six-Month Extension Of Peacekeeping Mission
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday advised the Security Council to extend the mandate for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon through the end of July, citing sporadic hostilities between Lebanon and Israel despite general stability in the area.
In his report calling for the six-month extension, Annan cited a "provocative cycle" of Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace and anti-aircraft fire from Hizbollah militants, as well as the generally volatile situation in the Middle East. He also called on Lebanon to "do its utmost to encourage a calm environment" in the country's south.
The Security Council previously reduced UNIFIL's troop size to 2,000, and Annan said that no further reductions are planned. He also said that funding for the mission has suffered a "serious shortfall" of $93.9 million.
In addition to other monitoring duties, UNIFIL continues to watch developments of the Israeli-Lebanese dispute over the Hasbani River and casualties from the area's minefields, Annan said in his report (U.N. release, Jan. 15).
The Security Council is expected to decide whether to extend the 24-year-old mission at a meeting Jan. 22 (Khalil Fleihan, Beirut Daily Star, Jan. 16). keralamonitor.com
IRAN: UNDP Launches Water Project, Warns Of Future Floods
The U.N. Development Program and Iran's northern Golestan province signed an agreement yesterday to launch a water basin rehabilitation project for the region around the Gorgan and Doogh rivers, where torrential rains in 2001 triggered flash floods and destroyed 25,000 hectares of farmland and forest.
The project is based on a report by a U.N. interagency mission that went to the area after the flooding, which killed 247 people and left 10,000 homeless. According to the report, the floods destroyed 15,000 hectares of farmland and 10,000 hectares of forest and rangeland, resulting in a total financial loss of $61.6 million.
UNDP, with assistance from Italy, will work to rehabilitate community facilities and natural resources and to bolster Iran's capacity to manage disasters. The project also involves education about flood vulnerability and ensuring that those who remain seriously affected by the 2001 floods, particularly in terms of health and drinking water, receive prompt assistance (Islamic Republic News Agency, Jan. 16).
A two-day UNDP-Iranian seminar on flash flood prevention opened yesterday in Tehran, with participants addressing the causes of such floods and assessing the achievements and failures of previous efforts to control flooding. Golestan Governor General Mohammad-Hashem Moheymani said scientific and practical prevention measures can help avert the huge quantities of water produced during flash floods, allowing people to use it instead for agricultural purposes. He mentioned several projects implemented during the past year, including the planting of trees on steep inclines to reduce the threat of flash floods.
UNDP Iran representative Philippe Devaud said officials must focus on prevention rather than response, warning that "more floods are expected" amid environmental change. "We should therefore join our forces on prevention, mitigation and preparedness," he said. "The most convincing argument why we should prevent -- rather than respond to -- disasters is in their sheer human and financial costs" (IRNA II, Jan. 16).
Devaud told participants that two-thirds of urban residents in Iran are vulnerable to floods, adding that 43 percent of the 3,000 floods in the past 50 years occurred in the past decade alone (IRNA, Jan. 15).--keralamonitor.com
