France, Russia Vow Vetoes
With the U.S. and some of its closest allies in a pitched diplomatic battle over the U.N. resolution imposing a March 17 deadline for Iraq to disarm, Washington and London signaled their willingness to extend next Monday's disarmament deadline and put off a vote until this Wednesday at the earliest, CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante reports.
"There are consultations under way," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "They are fluid."
He said that a vote on the resolution would not come on Tuesday. But, he added, "It could be any day later than tomorrow."
President Bush made a series of urgent phone calls to world leaders Monday, making the argument that if the U.N. fails to act in Iraq, it will be walking away from a moral responsibility.
"In the event that hostilities ensue and the Iraqi people are freed from the cloak of a brutal dictatorship that tortures, that kills, people of Iraq will know who to thank," said Fleischer. "That will be a moral issue."
French President Jacques Chirac, the most determined opponent of authorizing war, seemed to kill the chance the U.S-backed ultimatum would pass, saying his country, which has veto power in the Security Council, would vote against any resolution leading to war."
"No matter what the circumstances we will vote 'no,'" Chirac said in a televised interview.
Russia, also a veto-bearing member, said it would vote no, too.
"If the draft resolution that currently has been introduced for consideration and which contains demands in an ultimative form that cannot be met is nonetheless put to a vote then Russia will vote against this resolution," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said, according to the Interfax news agency.
In a further blow to the Bush administration, Pakistan's Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said for the first time publicly that his country, a key swing vote on the council, wouldn't support war with Iraq. And Chile, another vote which Washington is after, suggested it is not prepared to approve the resolution without changes.
At this point, only the U.S., Britain, Spain and Bulgaria are committed to vote for the resolution; France, China, Russia, Germany and Syria are lined up against.
Both the U.S. and France are aggressively courting the six undecided nations on the council. Secretary of State Colin Powell met Monday with the foreign minister of Guinea, while French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin traveled to Angola.
In his televised remarks, Chirac indicated a French veto might not be needed because the resolution does not have sufficient support for passage.
"Tonight this resolution, which carries an ultimatum ... does not have a majority of nine votes," Chirac said.
Asked whether he believed that voting against the resolution would seriously damage relations with the United States, Chirac said "I am totally convinced of the opposite."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the United States it would be in violation of the United Nations charter if it attacked Iraq without Security Council approval.
Speaking in the Netherlands, Annan said, "If the United States and others would go outside the council and take military action, it will not be in conformity with the charter."
"The legitimacy and support of any such action will be seriously impaired," he said.
Meanwhile, a CBS News/New York Times poll finds Americans losing patience with the United Nations.
Fifty-eight percent now say the U.N. is doing a poor job of handling Iraq – up ten points in the past month. Fifty-two percent say U.N. weapons inspectors should get more time – down eight points in the past week.
Half of Americans say Iraq poses a threat that requires military action now.
As the U.S. continued its diplomatic push, Secretary of State Colin Powell voiced alarm Monday over the U.N. inspector's report that Iraq has unmanned drone aircraft capable of dispensing chemical weapons.
The disclosure "should be of concern to everybody," Powell said after a meeting with Foreign Minister Francois Fall of Guinea.
"This and other information shows Iraq has not changed," Powell said in an exchange with reporters at the State Department.
Iraq also has developed a version of a South African cluster bomb that could disperse chemical weapons over a target, department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Iraq has claimed that it destroyed all chemical warheads.
In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair struggled to head off a growing revolt within his own party unhappy with his Iraq policy. A third of the Labor Party lawmakers are already on record opposing Blair's pro-U.S. stance, and on Monday his International Development secretary, Clare Short, threatened to quit over the issue.
Noting the pressure at home and at the United Nations, Blair said he was open to a compromise.
"We are talking to all the other countries about how we ensure that we can make a proper judgment about whether Saddam is cooperating or not," he said.
In other developments: