Iraq rejects U.N. arms inspectors

Iraq on Saturday rejected a new U.N. resolution that would return weapons inspectors and consider suspending sanctions. Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Iraq is "ready to face all of the consequences." THE RESOLUTION passed 11-0 on Friday by the U.N. Security Council does not meet Iraq_s "legitimate demand for the lifting of the sanctions," INA quoted Aziz as saying. In Friday_s Security Council vote, three of the five permanent members of the council abstained, reflecting their desire to see sanctions lifted without further delay. China, France and Russia abstained from the vote, which passed 11-0 in the 15-member chambers. (Malaysia also abstained.) Baghdad, which has long claimed it no longer has any weapons of mass destruction, has already stated its rejection of the resolution, presenting the council with a looming new problem. U.N. teams hunting down President Saddam Hussein_s chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and the ballistic missiles to deliver them, have been barred from returning to Iraq since they withdrew a year ago before U.S.-British missile attacks against Baghdad.