U.S., Britain to Tell U.N. It Has 3 Weeks on Iraq

The United States and Britain plan to offer a resolution on disarming Iraq at the U.N. Security Council on Monday that will be accompanied by a demand for a vote within three weeks, diplomatic sources said Friday.

The decision came as chief weapons inspector Hans Blix ordered Iraq to begin destroying its Al-Samoud 2 missiles by March 1 and as Bush administration officials confirmed that they have reached the outlines of an agreement with Turkey on allowing U.S. troops to traverse Turkish territory to attack Iraq from its north.

Weapons inspectors found that the Iraqi missiles exceed by 20 miles the 93-mile range allowed by the United Nations. Blix demanded that Iraq also destroy launchers, engines, autopilots, fuel and other components of the missiles, diplomats said.

Blix’s moves are expected to bolster the Bush administration’s efforts to persuade the Security Council to vote on a resolution that many believe will trigger a U.S.-led war on Iraq that has been the focus of worldwide protests.

In a breakthrough for the Bush administration’s war plans, U.S. and Turkish officials said they had settled the basic terms of a deal that includes a $26-billion package of grants and loans to Ankara in exchange for its allowing U.S. troops to open a front against Iraq from southeastern Turkey. Such a deal would settle the most important unresolved issue of the Pentagon’s war plan, officials said.

Both sides acknowledged that key points remain in dispute but said they hope to complete the deal Monday and present it to the Turkish legislature for its approval Tuesday.

President Bush, meanwhile, began an intensive lobbying campaign to line up international support for the draft resolution that his administration and Britain plan to present to the Security Council on Monday. Bush and top aides are calling and meeting world leaders over the next three days to win the nine votes that are needed among the 15-member council to pass the resolution.

A Simple Proposal

The draft resolution will be a fairly straightforward document. It will assert that Iraq is in material breach of 17 U.N. resolutions calling for its disarmament and will say that Baghdad failed to fully comply when given a final chance, sources said.

It will also say that it is time for the international community to move forward with the “serious consequences” spelled out in Resolution 1441, which returned inspectors to Iraq late last year.

Because “this is, in fact, the 18th resolution, the president does not think there needs to be a 19th. So this is a very important moment for the United Nations Security Council to decide whether or not it will act,” White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Diplomatic sources said that the U.S. and Britain hope to ensure a limit to the Security Council debate and the negotiating process by coupling the resolution with a deadline.

A three-week time frame, the sources said, will allow the council to hear a final report from Blix on Iraqi disarmament efforts March 7 before the council votes.

The deal in the works with Turkey, if approved by that nation’s legislature, would enable the United States to send a heavily armored force of more than 40,000 troops into northern Iraq, forcing President Saddam Hussein to divide and weaken his army. An allied force more than three times that size would be attacking Iraq from the south at the same time.

Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis cited a broad agreement on all issues and predicted in Ankara, the capital, on Friday that “a positive result will be reached in the coming days.”

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell sounded a more cautious note, telling reporters on his way to Tokyo for a five-day Asian tour that “it is not yet a done deal, but there has been progress in the last few hours.”

And analysts noted that several stumbling blocks remain.

Chief among these was the reported acquiescence by the United States to Ankara’s demands that thousands of Turkish troops be allowed to enter Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq, including oil-rich areas near the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, and remain under Turkish command. The private Turkish NTV news channel reported on the agreement Friday.

An aggressive advance by Turkish troops would set off powerful opposition from Kurdish groups, which have historical claims on the area, and non-Kurdish Iraqi opposition factions, and also other Arab states, which fear any move by Turkey to expand its influence. The Turks want to prevent the creation of a Kurdish state in Iraq’s north that might serve as a magnet for Turkey’s own restive Kurdish population of 13 million.

If it appeared the Turks were gaining new influence in this region, “this would be seen as the reconquest of the Arab world by the Turks, with the blessing of the United States,” said Bulent Aliriza, a Turkey specialist at Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

As the Bush administration awaits the Turkish legislature’s decision, it faces a tough fight at the Security Council over the resolution it intends to offer Monday.

Bush must avert possible vetoes by permanent members France, Russia and China. Several nonpermanent members of the Security Council, which don’t have veto power, have also been talking about abstaining as a way of dodging the confrontation.

“There are 15 votes. Every vote is important,” Fleischer said.

Lobbying Leaders

Bush began the lobbying campaign Friday by calling U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Bush is playing host to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar this weekend at the president’s ranch near Crawford, Texas. Aznar, whose country is one of the 10 rotating Security Council members, is one of his strongest supporters on Iraq.

Before traveling to Texas, Aznar stopped in Mexico, one of the nonpermanent Security Council members Bush is trying to sway, where he met with President Vicente Fox.

Fox has not disclosed how he would vote on a possible resolution, but he has repeatedly said he favors a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis, including giving weapons inspectors more time.

“No to war, no to unilateralism. Yes to the strengthening of the U.N. Security Council [and] that all the decisions flow from there,” Fox told reporters Thursday during an official trip to Yucatan state.

Fleischer described Aznar as one of a number of world leaders working with Bush as part of a kind of “circular diplomacy” to build support.

“The president will talk to one leader, who will in turn talk to another leader, who will in turn talk to a third leader,” Fleischer told reporters. “So there is a continual process of diplomacy, where the various leaders all talk with each other.”

After leaving the United States, Aznar travels to France, a permanent Security Council member that has led the opposition to war.

During his three-nation Asian tour, Powell will try to persuade China to end its opposition to war. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton will try to win Russia’s support for the proposed resolution, while Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman heads to France.

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Richter and Wright reported from Washington and Farley from the United Nations. Times staff writers Sonni Efron at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, Chris Kraul in Mexico City and Maura Reynolds in Crawford, Texas, and special correspondent Amberin Zaman in Ankara contributed to this report.