UN Security Council to Hold Special Session on Iraqi Crisis - 26 March, 2003

On Wednesday the UN Security Council will hold a special session on the Iraqi crisis at an urgent request of the League of Arab States and the Non-Aligned Movement which addressed the Security Council demanding to stop the war in Iraq and immediately withdraw the American and British troops from there.

Chairman of the UN Security Council Mamadi Traore, a representative of Guinea, told reporters that he had received requests from a group of Arab countries and the Non-Aligned Movement to hold an open session of the UN Security Council in the course of which all representatives of the UN member-countries will have a chance to express their opinions.

It is not yet known so far whether the initiators of the session will propose a draft resolution condemning the actions of the United States and Great Britain with regard to Iraq and demanding an immediate cessation to stop the conflict. Muhammad al-Douri, a permanent representative of Iraq at the United Nations, told the press that "this question is still being discussed." "I hope that the resolution, condemning this invasion and demanding that the attacks be stopped and all the foreigners withdrawn, as well as Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity respected, will be adopted," said he. But, he added, a veto on the part of the United States or Great Britain is quite possible. "At the same time it sometimes happens that the use of the right of veto is tantamount to defeat," remarked Muhammad al-Douri.

In case the resolution on Iraq is put to vote in the Security Council and is vetoed down, the group of Arab countries in the United Nations will seek an immediate convocation of the General Assembly.