14th July 1998

Take It or Leave It

ROME.  Faced with seemingly irreconcilable positions on practically all key issues of the Conference, the chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Philippe Kirsch, concentrated all his negotiating talents Monday on making room for a risky move: a "take it or leave it" vote on the draft Statute, conference sources said.

India Hits NATO, Gets Flak Itself

ROME.  India strongly criticised the NATO member states Monday for their refusal to include nuclear arms in the list of weapons whose deployment, in its view, should be considered a war crime by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Croatia: Weak Prosecutor, Weak Court

ROME.  "Without a strong and independent Prosecutor there isn't going to be a strong and independent Court," says Croatia's delegate Dubravka Markovic.

Iran: Rome Can't Achieve Everything

ROME.  Iran, which is coordinating the 113 members of the Non-Aligned Movement, seems open to the option of consensus and the postponement of some of the most controversial issues, such as the listing of nuclear weapons among forbidden arms, Iranian delegates indicated.

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