Tracking Number: 219002
Title: "Iraq to Face Unyielding UN Security Council." The UN Security Council is putting the final touches on a lengthy statement spelling out Iraq's failure to live up to
provisions of the Persian Gulf cease-fire. (920310)
Translated Title: Irak encarara un inflexible consejo de seguridad de Naciones Unidas. (920310)
Author: AITA, JUDY (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19920310
Text:
IRAQ TO FACE UNYIELDING U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL
(U.N. believes Iraq hiding SCUD missiles) (770) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Members of the U.N. Security Council are putting the final touches on a lengthy presidential statement spelling out Iraq's failure to live up to provisions of the Persian Gulf cease-fire.
The statement will enumerate Iraq's failure to cooperate with weapons inspection teams, its refusal to withdraw police posts from U.N. patrolled areas along the Kuwaiti border, its continued holding of thousands of Kuwaiti and third country prisoners of war, its refusal to sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies and make payments to the war compensation fund, and its failure to service its foreign debt.
The 15-member council has scheduled a day-long meeting with Iraqi officials for March 11. The Iraqis are expected to argue that they have been meeting their obligations and that now sanctions should be eased.
Diplomats say that the council statement will clearly express its determination that Iraq live up to U.N. resolutions it agreed to which ended hostilities in the gulf war.
Twice in the last month the council has accused Iraq of breaching cease-fire requirements and threatened it with serious consequences. One violation concerns the destruction of ballistic missile production facilities. The other took the form of a reprimand for Iraq's failing to fully disclose all the information on its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons or to accept the U.N.'s plan for long-term monitoring of its weapons programs.
At a press conference March 10, Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, executive chairman of the special commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons, predicted that "Iraq will have a very clear message from council: that all the weapons have to be disclosed."
The Iraqi delegation must understand that "there is no deal or compromise around the sanctions," Ekeus said. With compliance on the cease-fire resolution, sanctions will be lifted and Iraq's political isolation will end.
The special commission's "effectiveness is hampered by one single reason -- that is Iraq is not prepared to give up it's full capability. Iraq is still trying to salvage something and hide what they believe we can't find....That is the single great difficulty we have," he said.
Meanwhile, he added, council members are "united in demanding full compliance" by Iraq in the destruction of its ballistic missile facilities.
"We cannot say we have reached a situation where Iraq has disclosed all that it should according to the resolution," he said, adding that the special commission "is convinced that there are more missiles that have not been declared."
The special commission, he insisted, knows that Iraq has hidden both launchers and missiles that are not assembled. Iraq can't launch a surprise attack on its neighbors today, but "there is a dormant capability which we will dig out," he said.
Nevertheless Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz characterized the large team of experts and Iraqi officials who will testify before the council as a "goodwill" mission.
"The time has come to consider (Iraq's actions) in a fair manner and isolate it from the political intentions of this or that government," he told journalists after emerging from a three-hour meeting March 10 with non-aligned members of the council.
Tariq Aziz said he would argue that Iraq is meeting it's cease-fire obligations and that sanctions should be lifted.
He added that Iraqi experts "can prove to the Security Council that there are a lot of items and equipment that could be used for civilian purposes or those purposes not prohibited."
But Ekeus said that "what is under dispute is the capability relative to missile production and repair. None of these machines, buildings, and other components have been part of any civilian capability."
The reason for demanding the destruction of the equipment is "quite clear," Ekeus said. "The machines can, indeed, be used for (civilian needs), for example hospital beds...but they can easily be reconverted to be used for weapons."
Resolution 687, which sets out the basic cease-fire requirements, and other later resolutions which amplify the cease-fire demands, make clear that the weapons of mass destruction must be eliminated as well as the means to produce them, Ekeus said. "It is as simple as that."
"If Iraq is prepared to give up its capabilities in this respect it would be a very easy thing," the ambassador said. He added that he "would be surprised if the council said let Iraq keep some capability for chemical weapons or some nuclear capability or for missiles."
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File Identification: 03/10/92, PO-209; 03/10/92, EU-211; 03/10/92, NE-202; 03/11/92, AR-302; 03/11/92, EP-310; 03/11/92, AS-304; 03/11/92, NA-305
Product Name: Wireless File
Product
Code: WF
Languages: Arabic; Spanish
Keywords: UNITED NATIONS-SECURITY COUNCIL; IRAQ/Defense & Military; MILITARY CAPABILITIES; DISARMAMENT; PERSIAN GULF WAR; ARMISTICE; TREATIES & AGREEMENTS;
INSPECTIONS; PRISONERS OF WAR; PETROLEUM; EXPORTS; HUMAN RIGHTS; REPARATIONS; IN
Thematic Codes: 1UN; 1NE
Target Areas: AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 219002; 219031
USIA Notes: *92031009.POL
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