Closer to war

The Security Council looks to be inching step closer to war with Iraq. It seems that Angola, Cameroon, and Guinea have tentatively indicated that they would back an American resolution in a vote.

A senior U.S. official said the United States had positive responses from three African members of the Security Council — Angola, Cameroon and Guinea — which had previously been uncommitted. “We’re assured by what we heard from them,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Of course, France and possibly Russia or China may still veto such a resolution. And even without that, the U.S. is still two votes shy of the nine that it would need. Still uncommitted are Mexico, Pakistan, and Chile. If the U.S. wants to be able to claim that a resolution would have passed aside from a veto, it needs to get two out of the three onside.

Update: The U.S. now claims to have Pakistan’s support. That would put them only a single vote away from a majority. Pakistan, however, is not confirming this claim.