NYTimes.com Article: Iraq Backs Away From U.N. Demand to Set Arms Terms

[chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu]

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has been sent to you by chenry@gov.utexas.edu.


This may help Bush to get a new Security Council resolution concerning Iraq and WMD inspection.  We have seen much Iraqi stalling in the past and this may be just continuing these tactics - unless the letter is being misinterpreted.

chenry@gov.utexas.edu


Iraq Backs Away From U.N. Demand to Set Arms Terms

October 12, 2002
By JULIA PRESTON 




 

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 11 - Iraq, ignoring rising global
pressure for thorough inspections of its weapons programs,
has backed away from agreements reached last week on
minimum conditions for the inspectors to carry out their
work, diplomats said today. 

In a letter that became public today, Iraq did not meet a
specific request to confirm agreements it made last week in
Vienna with Hans Blix, the leader of the United Nations
weapons inspection team. Instead, Iraq insisted on further
discussions of even basic logistical arrangements. 

Diplomats said the Iraqi rebuff had irritated France and
Russia, veto-bearing members of the Security Council that
have been resisting Washington's demand for immediate
authorization to begin a military attack if the weapons
inspections fail. 

While Iraqi diplomats here continued to insist that they
were in "100 percent accordance" with the inspections,
American officials said the latest Iraqi move showed
President Saddam Hussein's reluctance to cooperate with a
probing search for his weapons of mass destruction. 

"We are not surprised that once again the Iraqis want to
delay and deceive," said Richard A. Grenell, the spokesman
for John D. Negroponte, the American ambassador to the
United Nations. "We've had 16 resolutions and 11 years of
playing this game, and it's time the Security Council takes
action." 

The Iraqi letter gave unexpected help to Washington's
campaign for a new resolution to force Iraq to allow
aggressive inspections, after Congress gave President Bush
the authority to go to war if Iraq does not give up its
most lethal weapons to the United Nations. 

Despite sharp differences over the terms of a new
resolution, all 15 Council nations are united in wanting
in-depth inspections that can turn up any prohibited
weapons programs in Iraq. The new resolution is certain to
require far more aggressive weapons inspections than
current ones, which are still guiding Mr. Blix's work. 

Mr. Blix has repeatedly said the Vienna talks were to
define practical procedures so there would be no disputes
with Iraq once the inspections got under way. The
negotiations Iraq proposed in its response appeared to be
laying the ground for the kind of squabbles that slowed
inspectors in the past, before they were pulled out in
1998, and which Mr. Blix hoped to avoid. Mr. Blix did not
respond to requests for comment today. 

The Oct. 10 letter, from Amir Hammudi al-Saadi, an adviser
to the Iraqi leader, was a reply to a letter two days
earlier from Mr. Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the director
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which handles
nuclear inspections. 

The two directors had laid out in writing what they
understood to be the agreements they had reached with Iraqi
officials last week, which covered basic terms like the
number of inspectors, the conditions for interviews of
Iraqi officials and other practical matters. They asked
Iraq to confirm the agreements. 

Iraq said it was ready to receive an advance team of
inspectors on Oct. 19. But it did not provide the
confirmation of the letter that Mr. Blix sought, agreeing
only to comments he and Mr. ElBaradei made in a news
conference after the Vienna talks and to notes Mr. Blix
used when he reported to the Security Council on Oct. 3.
The Iraqi official said other problems "that might stand in
the way of our future work" would be resolved through
"consultations." 

Iraq also said its offer for full access for the inspectors
applied only to United Nations measures "previously in
place," meaning that it did not agree to open Mr. Hussein's
eight presidential compounds to unannounced inspections, as
the United States and Britain have demanded. 

Iraq repeated a suggestion it made in Vienna that the
United Nations should pay for the security and other
services the government will provide to the inspectors,
reversing past practice, when Iraq paid the bill. Mr. Saadi
said this was not a condition. 

In terms that revealed the abyss that has opened between
President Hussein and the Security Council, the letter also
called for the United Nations to move toward lifting its
severe economic sanctions on Iraq. That possibility is so
remote at this point that the Council is not discussing it.


Although officials in Washington said the action would
shift to the United Nations on Saturday, there was little
progress on the draft resolution that the United States and
Britain have proposed, as diplomats continued to talk
behind scenes looking for compromise. 

The United States and Britain want one resolution with
rigorous inspections and a trigger for military action if
Iraq does not cooperate. France has proposed two stages,
leaving the authorization of force to a second Council
vote. 

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia also said today that
he would not support the mention of the use of force in a
resolution. Mr. Putin spoke in Moscow before Russia's
representatives at the United Nations had received the
Iraqi letter. 

Before he received his copy, Secretary General Kofi Annan,
speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Cambridge, Mass., said he believed the Council was leaning
toward the French position. 

"I think the member states want a two-stage approach: send
in the inspectors. If they get in trouble, come back, and
we will pass a second resolution," Mr. Annan said. 

In response to a furor raised by his comments, Mr. Annan's
spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said he was not endorsing any
position but only describing the state of play here. He
said Mr. Annan was following the intense debate but was
keeping a low profile and did not want to become part of
it. 

"His head is down, but his hand is in," Mr. Eckhard said.


The Iraqi ambassador, Mohammed A. Aldouri, said after
meeting with Arab nations here today that the inspectors
would be welcomed in Iraq. "We are in 100 percent
accordance," he said, referring to what Mr. Blix told the
Security Council. He did not mention Mr. Blix's letter. 

The Arab nations said they saw no need for any new
resolution from the Council. 

"I think there is no need to jump to conclusions about the
inspections," said Yahia Mahmassani, the Arab League
representative, "and into preparation of war that will only
engulf the Middle East in violence."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/international/middleeast/12NATI.html?ex=1035441802&ei=1&en=bbd436774b322900



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