Spain: Positive vote by Thursday
By CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said Monday that the U.N. Security Council will vote "Wednesday or Thursday" on a new resolution on Iraq, an aide to Palacio told CNN.
Palacio told CNN Saturday in an exclusive interview that the new resolution -- co-sponsored by the United States, Britain and Spain -- was likely to get nine or 10 votes in the 15-member Security Council. Earlier Monday she spoke to reporters at the Spanish Senate in Madrid and repeated that prediction, Spain's state-run news agency EFE reported.
Nine votes are needed to pass, but the resolution could still be vetoed by a negative vote from any of the council's five permanent members.
Two of those permanent members, France and Russia, have led opposition to the draft resolution, saying that it would be a prelude to war and that, instead, U.N. weapons inspectors should have more time to verify if Iraq has got rid of its weapons of mass destruction, as the U.N. has demanded.
Palacio said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar would be willing to go to the Security Council vote in New York if it becomes evident that a favorable majority vote was likely on the resolution and if many other national leaders also decided to attend the session, Palacio's aide told CNN.
She was due to travel later to Paris to meet French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who on Monday was touring African nations that are Security Council members to persuade them to back the French position against the U.S.-British-Spanish draft resolution.
Opinion polls show that a huge majority of Spaniards oppose a war in Iraq, and several million Spaniards marched in the streets last month against a possible war.
Aznar's conservative Popular Party has also suffered in opinion polls due to his pro-U.S. stance on the Iraqi issue. But Aznar has stood firm, saying that keeping up the pressure on Iraq is the only way to achieve compliance with U.N. demands. He also had said the looming possible battle with Iraq is part of the global war on terrorism.
