IRAQ:Iraq's parliament has voted unanimously to reject the key UN resolution demanding the country's disarmament but has left the final decision to President Saddam Hussein.
"It sends a message that the people of Iraq are united behind our leadership," the parliament's speaker, Mr Saadun Hammadi, said after the vote.
MPs decided to reject the US- drafted Security Council Resolution 1441 and "mandate the political leadership ... and Saddam ... to do what they deem fit to defend the great people of Iraq".
The 250- member National Assembly broke into applause during both votes and a third unanimously endorsing both parts of a similar recommendation from the house's Arab and international relations committee.
The decision now goes before the ruling Revolution Command Council chaired by Saddam, who has until Friday to accept or face "serious consequences".
MPs over two sessions on Monday and yesterday lambasted a resolution they said violated Iraq's sovereignty, flouted international law and imposed "surrender terms" by giving UN arms inspectors sweeping powers, including whisking interviewees out of Iraq, in their search for weapons of mass destruction which Baghdad insists it does not have.
"There is an intention on the part of the United States to carry out an aggression against Iraq even if we accept the resolution," Mr Salem al-Qubaissi said when asked to explain why the parliamentary committee he heads had recommended rejection.
Asked if the assembly hoped that the leadership would reject the resolution despite the blank cheque it was given, Mr Qubaissi said: "The mere fact that we mandated the leadership means it knows better [than parliament\] what it should do to uphold Iraq's interests, security and independence."
Baghdad's hints over the past few days that it would accept resolution 1441 to deny the United States a chance to attack were amplified yesterday when Saddam's elder son, Uday, called on parliament to accept the resolution "according to well-defined limits".
"We have to accept the UN Security Council resolution which is at the centre of this emergency session," Uday said in a working document submitted to the National Assembly. He called on the Arab League to provide an "umbrella" for Iraq and demanded that Arab experts be part of the disarmament teams.
Meanwhile, Arab analysts believe a war on Iraq looks inevitable, even if Baghdad agrees to the drastic disarmament terms set out by the UN Security Council.
"Resolution 1441 is a minefield," said Mr Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Qods Al-Arabi newspaper yesterday. "It is a statement of war as well as a death sentence. It's stuffed full of draconian conditions and provocations. It will inevitably cause numerous crises.
"Washington can interpret the slightest shooting against American planes in the 'no-fly' zones, or even a traffic jam blocking the movement of inspectors as violations" of the resolution, he added.
Prof Mohammed al-Mesfer, political science professor at Qatar University, said that "all roads lead to aggression. It's just a question of time. The resolution has virtually given Washington a free hand to occupy Iraq and set up a puppet regime.
"Iraq is just the first step of the United States' strategic aim to impose its domination on the world and subjugate Arab countries to the Zionist entity," added Mr Ashraf el-Bayumi, chairman of an Egyptian committee against imperialism and Zionism.
But he added that while "of course America wants war ... it is not impossible to halt the plan," urging "supporters of peace to reject the war fatalism and to express their rejection of the plan by demonstrating."
For Mr Mustafa Bakri, editor of Egypt's Al-Usboa weekly newspaper, "war is inevitable after the international support for America from the Security Council".
"America is not targeting just the alleged weapons of mass destruction or regime change in Iraq, it wants to change the geopolitical map of the region, under the influence of the military-industrial lobby," he said.
"But this war will not be a picnic," Mr Bakri warned. "America will suffer enormous losses in the ground war which could cause a strong reaction in America and an uprising by the Arab masses."