Parliament backed Iraq's break with international weapons inspectors yesterday despite warnings from the West of military action over the arms crisis. The leader of the UN arms team, Mr Richard Butler, described the situation as the worst ever UNIraq confrontation.
The 250-member National Assembly in Baghdad announced at an emergency session that it "forcefully backed the Iraqi leadership's decision to end all co-operation with UNSCOM [UN Special Commission] and its chief and halt its activities in Iraq".
Deputies also called on other Arab parliaments to support Iraq's position "in the face of the genocidal policies of the American administration", referring to Washington's hard line against lifting UN sanctions.
But Britain threatened President Saddam Hussein with military action if he refused to back down on Saturday's decision to break with UNSCOM on disarmament until it is restructured and its leader is sacked.
"If the use of force is necessary, then that's the course which should be taken," a Downing Street spokesman said as the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, met officials to discuss Iraq's move.
Afterwards, Mr Blair warned Iraq that it faced the possibility of military action if it refused to back down. He said Western leaders were "ready to take whatever means necessary" to ensure Iraq obeyed UN resolutions.
The British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, said the international force put together at the time of the last confrontation with Mr Saddam in early 1998 when he expelled US arms inspectors remained in place.
"He must obey the will of the international community and the UN or face the consequences," Mr Robertson said. "If he seems hell-bent on confrontation with the UN, the international community will stand up to him in the same way as it did then."
The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, who cut short an Asian tour because of the crisis, also warned that military strikes have "always been an option that we could pursue".
"It's a contest between Iraq and the United Nations," Mr Cohen said on Sunday. "We prefer to act through our allies and with our allies, and hopefully that will be the case if we have to take any action at all."
President Clinton met his foreign policy team on Iraq yesterday and the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, is also holding consultations with Mr Butler and Security Council members on the Iraqi action. Mr Annan yesterday declined to comment on the possible use of force, saying he had "no idea as to what role the US is going to play".
Baghdad has vowed it would not back down even in the face of military strikes, and repeated accusations that UNSCOM was used by Israeli and US spy agencies to infiltrate the sanctions-hit state.
"We do not fear the reactions or threats, they are not worse than the present situation," the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, said on Sunday.
Moscow said Iraq's decision could scuttle efforts towards a lifting of the sanctions imposed after Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and again aggravate the situation in the region.
"Only the full resumption of constructive co-operation with the United Nations, including UNSCOM, can allow a settling of the Iraqi situation and the return of its people to a normal life," the foreign ministry said.
Mr Butler described the situation as the worst confrontation so far.
"Iraq is directly confronting the law-making of the Council," he told NBC, adding that Baghdad was also extending its "resistance" to long-term monitoring.
"That is serious, and I think that's what makes this the worst confrontation by Iraq with the Security Council that we've yet seen."
Iraq has blamed the crippling sanctions for more than one million deaths. But they cannot be lifted until UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency certify the elimination of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.