British Prime Minister Tony Blair told members of a Labour Party conference in Blackpool last Tuesday that is important to restart the Israeli-Palenstinian peace talks in light of the pending UN action against Iraq. He alluded to the UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which together call for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and a dialogue for final resolution of the problem. He expressed concern over a double-standard in applying resolution to Iraq and Israel.

There appears to be modest progress on a new UN Security Council resolution. The US has long demanded that any new resolution on Iraqi weapons inspections have "teeth," citing a decade of obstruction by the Iraqi government. France, China, Russia and others have stressed that diplomatic and political efforts are more effective than putting a gun to Iraq's head. A consensus is building around a resolution which mentions dire consequences of attack, but does not explicitly authorize the use of force.

President Bush announced in the Rose Garden yesterday that he's reached agreement with the House on the wording of a resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. He was flanked by a boatload of congressmen and senators from both parties, with the conspicuous absence of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). The President slightly softened his position on military action, saying only that it "may be inevitable." The New York Times has text of the resolution. The Senate is still divided, and debates are likely to begin next week.

The House resolution mentions the war on terrorism specifically, as well as Iraq's violations on UN Security Council resolutions. It specifically authorizes the use of force under the War Powers Act for the purposes of defending the security of the United States and enforcing UN resolutions.

President Bush announced that the bipartisan Biden-Lugar resolution is too restrictive, and is even weaker than the original 1998 congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq. He warned Congress to not "tie my hands."

With the US-British resolution expected to show up as early as today, the BBC has Secretary of State Colin Powell giving the UN weapons inspectors a heads-up: "I think [the inspectors]... will have to wait and see whether or not the Security Council comes up with new guidance or additional resolutions." UNMOVIC head Hans Blix replied, "I'm asked by the Security Council to do this job, and I do it. I try to."

UNMOVIC head Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials are meeting with Iraqi representatives in Vienna to discuss the protocols for the impending inspections, currently scheduled to begin October 15th. The director of the IAEA, Mohammed El-Baradei, spoke of "progress." The talks are being held under the old inspection rules, which include inspections of "presidential" locations by appointment only. The talks will end tomorrow, when the IAEA and UNMOVIC must wait for UN Security Council approval of the mission.

Just about everyone covered Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's remarks on the "defiance" of Iraq in the no-fly zones, which seems to be the Iraqi-evil-of-the-day at the White House. The no-fly zones were established by the US, Britain and France to protect minority ethnic groups in Iraq after the Gulf War. "It bothers the dickens out of me that US and British pilots are getting fired at day after day after day, with impunity," says Rumsfeld. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer announced that attacks on US and British patrols have increased in frequency since the September 16th consent from Iraq to unconditional weapons inspections.