ACCESSION
ACCESSION NUMBER:303013 FILE ID:POL504 DATE:09/10/93 TITLE:UNITED NATIONS REPORT, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 (09/10/93) TEXT:*93091004.POL UNITED NATIONS REPORT, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 (Iraqi weapons) (690) TECHNICAL WEAPONS TALKS WITH IRAQ ENDS INCONCLUSIVELY Technical talks between the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) and top Iraqi officials ended September 10 with little progress. At a press conference at the end of the talks, UNSCOM Chairman Rolf Ekeus said that "Iraq appears in principle to go along with the whole package of how monitoring shall be carried out, but still we have no agreement, so to say, on starting out these activities." Iraq insists that start of the long-term monitoring of its weapons program be linked to the council's lifting of the oil embargo, Ekeus said. "Iraq would like to have an end of the stage of identifying and eliminating existing (weapons) capabilities. We are prepared to do that provided we can be convinced that we found everything which is prohibited under the resolution (outlining the Gulf War cease-fire demands), but we also demand implementation immediately of the (monitoring) plans," he said. During the talks, Iraq provided some additional information on production facilities, chemical activities, missile production, and some suppliers which, the chairman said, "are interesting and they are new, but they are not solving the big problem." Even on the technical information, he said, Iraq is holding back until it is given "political assurances" that the oil embargo will be lifted. 1 Ekeus said that Iraq apparently feels that regardless of how thoroughly it complies with the U.N. demands and UNSCOM and IAEA's certification, some council members will block the lifting of the embargo. He said that Baghdad is exploring that theory with some members of the council. The position of the Security Council is that "both the existing stage -- the weeding out of existing capabilities -- and the (long-term monitoring) plans be initiated and up and running" before the oil embargo could be lifted, he said. The details and linkage to the lifting of the embargo are spelled out in paragraph 22 of the cease-fire demands. Ekeus said that under the best possible conditions -- with full cooperation from Iraq on all issue including lists of foreign suppliers and the baseline inspections for the long-term monitoring successfully completed -- it would be nine months before he and International Atomic Energy (IAEA) officials could recommend to the council that the embargo be lifted. The talks, which began August 31, were the outcome of Ekeus' visit to Baghdad in July to ease the crisis over Iraq's refusal to allow monitoring cameras to be installed at two rocket test sites, and the underlying problem of Iraq's refusal to accept the long term monitoring and verification plan devised by UNSCOM regarding Iraq's re-acquiring chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic weapons banned by the council. Ekeus said that he asked Iraq to turn on the cameras immediately but Iraq said it would give the U.N. an answer after the delegation returns to Baghdad. Calling that "a disappointment," he said now "the process is on hold" and he will not go to Baghdad for another round of talks without the activation of the cameras. The commission meanwhile is preparing a report for the Security Council that would outline a sequence for completing the elimination of existing capabilities and simultaneously beginning the long-term monitoring. But Ekeus said that UNSCOM cannot draw up a timetable for events because of Iraq's behavior over the last two years. "The starting point for me is very unclear, it depends upon Iraq," he said. Maurizio Zifferero, deputy director general of IAEA, said that "the problems of suppliers and sources of foreign technical advice is one of the remaining outstanding issues for compliance." IAEA, Zifferero said, is confident that most of the conventional supplier and the technical assistance from governments have been identified either by agency action of by statement made by Iraq. "What we are left with is a limited number of areas -- what we call critical supplies -- these are not more than 5 or 6 where we would like to obtain firsthand information from the Iraq first and then this information would be used for verification," he said. NNNN .
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