Tracking Number: 217278
Title: "UN Special Mission Returns from Iraq Empty Handed." UN investigator Ambassador Rolf Ekeus reported to the UN Security Council that after three days of meetings with top
Iraqi officials, he regretfully concluded that Iraq had not agreed to honor all its obligations under the cease-fire agreement. (920227)
Translated Title: Mision especial ONU vuelve de Irak con las manos vacias. (920227)
Author: AITA, JUDY (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19920227
Text:
U.N. SPECIAL MISSION RETURNS FROM IRAQ EMPTY HANDED
(Still no cooperation on weapons destruction) (930) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The head of the commission destroying Iraqi weapons told the U.N. Security Council February 27 that Iraq continues to refuse to unconditionally cooperate with the world body and to provide complete information on its weapons programs.
Reporting to the council after a special mission to Iraq earlier this month, Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, executive chairman of the special commission on the destruction of Iraq's weapons, said that after three days of meetings with top Iraqi officials he "regretfully concluded" that Iraq had not agreed to honor all its obligations under the cease-fire agreement.
Asked the U.S. reaction to the report, Ambassador Thomas Pickering said "the usual answer: stay tuned."
On February 19 the council warned Iraq that it faced "serious consequences" if it did not live up to its cease-fire obligations.
Iraq's failure to acknowledge its specific obligations set out in resolutions 707 and 715; its rejection of two monitoring and verification plans; and its failure to provide the full, final and complete disclosure of its weapons capabilities "constitute a continuing material breach of the relevant provisions of 687," the council said.
It sent Ekeus to Baghdad to secure "unconditional agreement" to comply with U.N. demands for the long-term weapons program monitoring.
Ekeus, and four commission staff members, were in Iraq February 21-23. He met with top officials in the Iraqi foreign ministry, the military industrial corporation, the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
The officials maintained that Iraq provided the necessary information required by the council but suggested that it "may not have presented its declarations in a coherent manner," Ekeus said. They suggested that they present them a second time in a consolidated format; then, if the commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were not satisfied they could ask specific questions of Iraqi experts.
Ekeus pointed out, "Iraq gives no undertaking to provide such a full, final and complete disclosure. Instead it expresses the opinion that it has provided all the necessary information required of it."
The Iraqis said a delegation of high level officials and weapons experts would travel to New York to talk to the Security Council and commission about Iraq's positions. But Ekeus said that it was not made clear that the information and agreements the council wants will be provided by the delegation.
Ekeus told the council that while he welcomed the offer to consolidate the information already provided, "it would not constitute the full, final and complete disclosure...which would provide the special commission and the IAEA with a complete picture and understanding of all Iraq's prohibited weapons programs."
Iraq also suggested a "seminar" of Iraqi, commission and IAEA experts that would deal "once and for all" with the picture of Iraq's weapons programs and would result in a report to the Security Council stating that Iraq was in compliance, he said.
The executive chairman said that while he was talking with the Iraqi officials, "a ballistic missile inspection team found at two sites prohibited items that had not previously been declared."
Iraq has not provided any or sufficient information requested in a written outline by the Commission and has indicated it is willing to provide some, but not all, the information, he added. The most serious difficulty has been Iraq's rejection of the ongoing monitoring and verification.
Ekeus said the Iraqi officials indicated that the monitoring was accepted "only in principle" and is subject to considerations of "sovereignty, national security and non-infringement on Iraq's industrial capabilities."
"The executive chairman cannot conclude that such a statement constitutes unconditional agreement by Iraq to implement its obligations under the plans for ongoing monitoring and verification," he reported.
Ekeus had also complained to the council that Iraq was keeping U.N. airplanes from landing at airports convenient to Baghdad. During the visit, Iraq gave permission for a U.N. plane to land near the chemical weapons destruction site for medical evacuation purposes. But "no progress was made" for U.N. planes to use an operation airfield within Baghdad city limits.
Iraq also insisted that its cooperation with the special commission should be linked to the easing or lifting of sanctions, Ekeus also said. "To the Iraqi side it appeared that, no matter what Iraq did, sanctions remained in place. In such circumstances it was difficult for them to see what incentive there was for Iraq to be cooperative."
Wide-ranging economic and military sanctions -- with the exception of humanitarian food and medical supplies -- are still in effect. They will be lifted, according to the council, when Iraq complies with all aspects of the cease-fire including not only the weapons destruction but such requirement as the return of Kuwaiti detainees and Kuwaiti property.
At the center of the problem are the cease-fire resolution, number 687, and two others that delineate the requirements set in 687. The first, resolution 707, sets out the work of the special commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as the cooperation and treatment they are to expect from Iraq. In that resolution the council demanded that Iraq provide the full, final and complete disclosure of its weapons capabilities. The other resolution -- 715 -- authorized the commission's plan for long-term monitoring and verification of Iraq's unconditional obligation not to use, develop, construct or acquire any weapons of mass destruction.
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File Identification: 02/27/92, PO-409; 02/27/92, AE-412; 02/27/92, EU-411; 02/27/92, NE-407; 02/28/92, AR-510; 02/28/92, NA-504; 03/02/92, AS-103
Product Name: Wireless File
Product
Code: WF
Languages: Arabic; Spanish
Keywords: EKEUS, ROLF; UNITED NATIONS-SECURITY COUNCIL; IRAQ/Politics & Government; ARMISTICE; TREATIES & AGREEMENTS; PERSIAN GULF WAR; INVESTIGATIONS;
CONFERENCES; INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY; NUCLEAR WEAPONS; IRAQ/Defense & Mil
Thematic Codes: 1UN; 1NE; 1AC
Target Areas: AF; EU; NE; AR
PDQ Text Link: 217278; 217649
USIA Notes: *92022709.POL
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