NEW YORK – The UN Security Council has extended the sanctions against Iraq in force since the Gulf War for a further 60 days. “There is no consensus among the 15 member countries of the Council to change the sanctions regime”, said the current president, the Portuguese Antonio Monteiro, at the end of a meeting behind closed doors. The measure will be canceled when the UN is assured that Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction, established the Security Council. In particular, the United States and Great Britain, permanent members of the Council, have insisted in recent days on the progress that still needs to be made by the leadership of Baghdad to cancel any suspicion on chemical weapons, before sanctions are repealed. The decision of the UN directorate has obviously influenced the discovery, in recent days, of traces of the deadly nerve gas “Vx” on fragments of Iraqi missile warheads. According to the inspectors led by Richard Butler, it could be proof that Saddam Hussein had already set up rockets ready to launch the chemical war. But Baghdad denies: according to Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, the “Vx” deal is “a political plot”, organized to poison the atmosphere before the sanctions decision. Baghdad threatened to suspend collaboration with UN disarmament inspectors if sanctions were not revoked.