ACCESSION NUMBER:00000 FILE ID:96071701.NNE DATE:07/17/96 TITLE:17-07-96 SECURITY COUNCIL CHASTISES IRAQ FOR AGAIN BLOCKING INSPECTORS TEXT: (Says Iraq broke month-old agreement) (840) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- After hearing a report of new attempts by Iraq to block U.N. weapons inspectors, the Security Council July 17 reminded Iraq that it must allow the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to all sites it wants to inspect. A "disappointed" Rolf Ekeus, UNSCOM chairman, went to the council after Iraq stopped 33 weapons experts from traveling to an undisclosed site on the outskirts of Baghdad. The confrontation, as well as another incident involving a different group of U.N. weapons inspectors, took place July 16 as UNSCOM undertook the initial test of an agreement signed in June by Ekeus and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on UNSCOM access to sites throughout Iraq. "An inspection team was again blocked on the road to carry out an inspection -- not at the site, but on its way to a site. After delays and protestations from our side, Iraq made the firm statement that they would not allow us to pass through that road, which was the only one, as we understood it, to the site," Ekeus told journalists after his private meeting with the Security Council. "So we had to give up that inspection," Ekeus said. "I am disappointed. The actions are not in conformity with either the letter or the spirit of that agreement, which I hoped would open a new chapter in our operations," the UNSCOM chairman said. After a series of similar standoffs earlier this year, Iraq and the U.N. signed an agreement June 22 saying that Iraq would allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to all sites which the Commission or the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Commission) may wish to inspect." Ekeus said that the 33-member team headed by chief inspector Nikita Smidovich of Russia was stopped in an area not far from Iraq's international airport. It was headed to an undisclosed site to look for documents or remnants of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs and missiles. "We are in agreement with Iraq that they acquired these items ... but Iraq then says they destroyed them unilaterally and secretly in 1991 after the war. We have no proof of such destruction and we want to see either the documents or the materials. That is the problem now," Ekeus said. Iraqi officials refused to let the team proceed saying the road went through "what they called 'the presidential area,'" he said. "It was a road. It didn't look presidential to our people, but secondly of course, there are no exceptions from inspections in Iraq," Ekeus said. "We don't suspect that the president is hiding something in his own facilities. I wouldn't hide chemical weapons in my basement in the house," he said. U.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm called Iraq's latest blockade "a clear violation of the agreement that has been reached and ... just continued evidence that the Iraqis, while they may claim one thing, in effect are acting to block the inspectors from undertaking the kind of activities that they have to do if there is ever going to be any resolution of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program." Gnehm said that the council will continue to watch the situation and discuss "what exactly should be done." British Ambassador Sir John Weston said that "this is the first test after that agreement was reached and Iraq has once again failed the test." "We are really fed up with being told one thing only to find the Iraqis are doing another. Iraq is not taking the Security Council and the international community seriously," Sir John said. "It is going to have, I'm afraid, serious repercussions to the detriment of Iraq because we will not reach the point where sanctions can be lifted if this kind of non-cooperation goes on. It will simply stop this program dead in its tracks," the British ambassador said. Economic sanctions against Iraq, especially the oil embargo, will not be lifted until UNSCOM has certified to the council that Iraq's banned chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs have been destroyed. The inspections do not have any impact on the special plan worked out with the council to sell $2,000 million of oil every six months in order to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies for Iraqi civilians. In a statement to the press, Council President Alain Dejammet said that the members of the council "expressed their disappointment and preoccupation about the difficulties and obstacles" Iraq has placed before the UNSCOM inspectors. "They unanimously recalled that Iraq must fully comply with the resolutions of the Security Council and abide by the commitments undertaken and conclusions reached" June 22 at the end of Ekeus' mission to Baghdad, Dejammet said, adding that Ekeus and UNSCOM have the council's "full support." Dejammet will also call in Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon. NNNN
