UN envoy in Iraq, British threats against Iraq

The special envoy of the United Nations secretary general Prakash Shah delivered a message to the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz regarding the latest crisis, that broke out due to Iraq's halting of cooperation with the UN inspection teams and the international agency for atomic energy.

An Iraqi source told ArabicNews.com that "the message tackles the latest developments of the crisis and the diplomatic endeavors for solving it."

The source spoke of reports that Prakash Shah asked the United Nation's secretary general to make a tour to Iraq to present these developments and to stop the military escalation, pointing out that Iraq trusts Kofi Annan.

Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary George Robinson arrived today at Bahrain after a tour in Kuwait in which he met high level officials. Robinson said "we are running out of time and patience" and he warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that he would be a fool if he undermines British determination to finishing the inspection process properly.

He said the alliance is gathering support from the gulf states, and "we will receive the support we need," and that it will not be difficult to convince the gulf countries of air strikes against Iraq.

The US continues to reiterate that all options (military and diplomatic) are on the table if Iraq does not cooperate. White House Spokesman Joe Lockhart commented today in response to whether a military strike against Iraq will permanently solve the Iraq-UN problem saying that "I can't speculate on a potential policy decision that we haven't made." He refused to indicate if there were a deadline for Iraq to conform to UN wishes saying "I am not going to get into any speculation about time lines."