London, Mar 03: Britain said today that Iraq needed to do far more than break up its Al-Samoud 2 missiles to satisfy United Nations demands to disarm and thus head off a US-led attack. Iraq destroyed 10 of the missiles over the weekend, after they were found by UN inspectors to have a range that exceeds UN-set limits. But a Downing Street spokesman told a regular press briefing the real "test" was not whether Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was destroying missiles, which he inaccurately declared to the UN late last year. Britain, along with the United States and Spain, has tabled a draft resolution at the UN Security Council declaring Iraq to be in final breach of a dozen years of UN demands to give up any weapons of mass destruction. If that resolution is put to a vote, likely within days of chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix's next report to the council on Friday, then US and British forces could invade Iraq almost immediately.
Bureau Report