Tracking Number: 217740
Title: "Security Council Condemns Iraq for Not Destroying Arms." The Council called Iraq's refusal to destroy ballistic missile-related equipment and to agree to the UN plan for
continued monitoring of weapons programs a serious breach of cease-fire conditions. (920301)
Author: AITA, JUDY (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19920301
Text:
*SUF704
03/01/92
SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS IRAQ FOR NOT DESTROYING ARMS (Pickering says Iraq hasn't "gotten message") (710) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The Security Council February 28 condemned Iraq for refusing to cooperate with the U.N. team in the country to destroy ballistic- missile-related equipment and said "Iraq's behavior constituted a material breach" of the cease-fire conditions.
In a presidential statement, read by U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, current president of the council, Iraq was condemned for its refusal to supply the U.N. with full information on its ballistic, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs and agree to the U.N. plans for ongoing monitoring and verification of those programs also "constituted a material breach" of the cease-fire.
The council stressed that the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of the weapons has the sole authority to decide what is to be destroyed under the cease-fire resolution (687) passed in April 1991.
Talking with journalists after the council meeting, Pickering said the statement "was arrived at very rapidly, without dissension, and with a strong sense of purpose by the members of the council."
"The council has remained strong, cohesive, and determined and the council, I believe, is ready to maintain that posture and continue with its efforts," he said.
But Pickering noted that Iraq hasn't "gotten the message yet." "What the Iraqis think they're doing has been so masterfully disappointing and ill-conceived and badly and poorly analyzed in the past that I hope that the Iraqis understand that the council is sending them a very firm message not to repeat the mistakes of the past," he said.
Iraq's "obligations are very clear-cut and the council is deeply concerned that this is all part of a giant stall on the part of Iraq," Pickering said.
Discussing statements by council members that serious consequences are in store if Iraq continues to violate the cease-fire conditions, the ambassador said "the council has learned to speak in very careful terms to Iraq and we hope the Iraqis have learned to listen to those careful terms. If they haven't learned to listen, then obviously you can draw your own conclusions."
Iraq has indicated that it wants to discuss the conversion of the items to civilian use and other weapons-related matters with the council. Iraqi delegates at the U.N. told the council that a high-level delegation would be in New York, but gave no indication when.
However, in its statement, the council said this delegation should come "without further delay" and, in any event, it would begin discussing the problem "no later than the week beginning March 9."
The council will meet with the delegation "not to argue about the obligations. (The Iraqi delegation) is not to answer questions about the obligations. It is to answer our question: Are they going to comply?" Pickering said.
"The special commission has been given the sole authority...to make the determination on what constitutes military and what constitutes exempted items for destruction," Pickering said. "We have full faith in the commission doing so."
"It is almost ludicrous that at every turn Iraq has suggested that every element of its military missile program be preserved and even...suggested that 100-kilometer missiles were wonderful civilian-type goods which should continue to be produced," he added.
Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, executive chairman of the Special Commission, said "Iraq has not been prepared to go along with the monitoring and verification. They have not recognized these plans and they have so far not in any way, in any declaration, (have) a hint of cooperation."
The cease-fire resolution "makes clear that the only way to handle the ballistic missiles and the related equipment and material for the production of such missiles would be to destroy (them). So there is no room for any conversion and shouldn't be any conversion according to the resolution," Ekeus said.
British Ambassador Sir David Hannay said he hoped "Iraq will understand the mood and the determination of the council." He, too, added that the council has "no intention whatsoever to negotiate" with the high-level Iraqi delegation while it is in New York.
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File Identification: 03/01/92, SU-704; 03/02/92, EP-101; 03/02/92, NX-101; 03/02/92, NA-104
Product Name: Wireless File
Product Code: WF
Languages: Arabic
Keywords: IRAQ/Defense & Military; UNITED NATIONS-SECURITY COUNCIL; ARMISTICE; PICKERING, THOMAS; MISSILES
Thematic Codes: 1NE
Target Areas: AF; AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text
Link: 217740
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