The new U.N resolution on restoring weapons inspectors to Iraq imposes U.S. will on the global community and creates demands that will be hard for Iraq to meet, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations says.
"This is the will of the United States on the rest of the world," Iraqi U.N ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said today.
"I am very pessimistic. This resolution is crafted in such a way to prevent inspectors to return to Iraq," he said.
Aldouri was speaking after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution giving Iraq one last chance to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction or face "serious consequences."
The resolution, drafted by the United States and co-sponsored by Britain, gave Baghdad a week to accept the terms and promise to comply.
Aldouri did not say whether Baghdad would accept the resolution. "We will wait and see what the reaction is from Baghdad," Aldouri said.
The vote capped eight weeks of tough negotiations on a text after U.S. President George W. Bush challenged the United Nations on September 12 to compel Iraq to implement U.N. resolutions ordering it to disarm.
"Others did their best, they did what they could - France, Russia, Syria and China - and in the end they had to look after their own national interest," Aldouri said.
The resolution gives U.N. arms inspectors, who have been out of Iraq for four years, "immediate, unimpeded and unconditional" rights to search anywhere, including Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces, for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, and threatens Iraq with "serious consequences" if it fails to cooperate.