Iraq has so far rejected the resolution. The UN withdrew its previous weapons inspectors in December 1998 shortly before the US and Britain launched a bombing campaign against Iraq because of its failure to co-operate with the previous inspection regime. Now the disagreement within the Security Council has entered a new phase, with Russia and France angering the US and Britain by flying aircraft into Baghdad without gaining prior approval from the UN committee that oversees the sanctions. The French and Russians say their flights have been humanitarian, requiring prior notification but not approval. They, as well as Jordan and Iceland, are planning more flights.
Scepticism is in order about the declared motives of both sides.
It's not to deny that the French and Russians are genuinely concerned at the plight of Iraqi civilians to suggest that they may also see future dividends in doing President Saddam a favour. Iraq is the fourth largest oil producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, but sanctions limit how much oil it can sell and restricts it to spending the revenue, under UN supervision, on items such as food and medicine. Potentially, there are investment opportunities for sympathetic friends if sanctions are lifted. As for the US and Britain, they are not driven only by a proper concern to ensure that the Baghdad bully is deprived of any capacity to threaten neighbour states with weapons of mass destruction again. There is also a wish to continue punishing him, not just for his 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but for his subsequent defiance.