Security Council schedules emergency meeting today on Iraq

UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council, responding to Arab and nonaligned nations that demanded an end to the war in Iraq and the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops, scheduled an emergency meeting for today.

Guinea's U.N. Ambassador Mamady Traore, the current council president, announced Tuesday that he had received letters from both groups asking for an open meeting where any of the 191 U.N. member states can speak on the situation in Iraq.

The meeting will begin Wednesday afternoon and is likely continue into Thursday, he said.

It was not clear whether the 22-member Arab Group and the Non-Aligned Movement, which represents about 115 mainly developing countries, would introduce a resolution demanding a halt to the fighting and pullout of all foreign forces.

Such a move would almost certainly be vetoed by the United States and Britain.

Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri, the current chairman of the Arab Group, said the possibility of introducing a resolution and calling for a vote in the Security Council "is under discussion."

"I hope there will be a resolution that condemns this invasion, which asks an end of attacks and withdrawal of all foreigners, and calls for respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity in Iraq," he said. "At the same time, we know there is the American and British veto there."

Al-Douri said a vote would show the strong opposition in the international community to the war against the government of Saddam Hussein.

"The veto itself is sometimes a kind of defeat," he told Associated Press Television News on Monday night.

But diplomats said other countries did not want to push for a resolution that would be vetoed.

Arab nations called Monday for an emergency Security Council meeting, following up on a decision made earlier in the day by Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, Egypt. They called on the United States and Britain to withdraw troops from Iraq immediately and unconditionally, and urged a council meeting.

Kuwait didn't object to the council meeting but issued a reservation because the foreign ministers did not condemn Iraq for firing 12 missiles into civilian areas of Kuwait. Most exceeded the 93-mile limit allowed under U.N. resolutions.

If a resolution is vetoed in the Security Council, the Arab Group has been instructed by the Arab ministers to seek an emergency meeting of the 191-member General Assembly. To get a special session, supporters have to present a petition signed by 97 nations.

Al-Douri said he expected to get that number with the support of Arab and nonaligned nations as well as the Organization of Islamic Conference.

No nation has veto power in the General Assembly, but its resolutions are not legally binding -- unlike those in the Security Council.