The Security Council of the UN will debate this afternoon Saddam Hussein's about-face proposal to invite UN inspectors to supervise his arms arsenals. International reactions to Iraq's sudden offer have been varied. Spokesmen for the governments of the U.S. and England voiced skepticism, and the United States continues to threaten military action if Baghdad does not comply with past UN resolutions. Australia, too, says that the Iraqi declaration must be taken with a great degree of skepticism, but China and Russia greeted it enthusiastically. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said, "Thanks to our joint efforts, we managed to avert the threat of a war scenario and go back to political means of solving the Iraqi problem." Syrian President Bashar Assad, predictably, has called upon the U.S. government to "stop beating the war drums" and to begin working with the UN to achieve a solution to the crisis with Iraq.