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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Wednesday that it is only the United Nations Security Council that can make a decision on the use of force against Iraq.
"Given the information at my disposal, no decision has been made by the US leadership to conduct a military operation in Iraq," Ivanov was quoted by the Russian news agencies as saying when he told Russian reporters in Yekaterinburg in the country's Sverdlovsk region (1,300 kilometers east of Moscow).
Ivanov said that international inspectors now working in Iraq are to submit a report on Iraq to the UN Security Council on January 27, and "the decision will be taken on the basis of its study."
"If the international inspectors decide they need more time to work in Iraq, they should be given that opportunity," said Ivanov.
Speaking of nuclear crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Ivanov stressed that Moscow has no plans to revise its defense ties with that country in the wake of its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2003)
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