03 November 1997
U.N. ENVOYS TO DISCUSS WEAPONS CRISIS WITH BAGHDAD
(Baghdad blocks three weapons inspections) (880) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Secretary General Kofi Annan is sending a three-man team to Baghdad to "defuse a very tense situation" that has resulted from Iraq's refusal to cooperate with the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) and demand that American weapons inspectors leave the country, a U.N. spokesman said November 3. After discussions with Security Council members throughout the weekend, Annan asked three experienced diplomats to go to Baghdad immediately to talk with Iraqi officials. The Security Council was scheduled to meet in closed session late in the afternoon November 3 to review the latest developments and hear a report from UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler as the confrontation between Iraq and the Security Council escalated with new threats from Iraq. The team is headed by former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, and includes Ambassador Emilio Cardenas, a former Argentine U.N. envoy, and Jan Eliasson of the Swedish Foreign Ministry and a former U.N. ambassador and undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs. Iraq has notified the U.N. that it would accept the mission, which is expected to arrive in Baghdad no later than November 5. However, U.N. officials stressed that the team will not be negotiating new criteria for the weapons inspections. UNSCOM's mandate was laid down in a Security Council resolution at the end of the Gulf war and accepted by Iraq. Under the terms of that resolution (687), UNSCOM is to have full control over its operations and access to all sites in the country. "There's nothing to negotiate," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. "This is a diplomatic effort to defuse a very dangerous situation." "A number of governments conveyed their concern to Iraq and any sense that the Security Council is divided on this issue has now been dispelled," Eckhard said. "The next step is up to Iraq and this mission is looking to facilitate that next step," the spokesman said. The secretary general gave no fixed duration for the mission, Eckhard said. In a letter to the Security Council, UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler described the events of November 3 during which the special commission was forced to cancel inspections by biological, chemical and ballistic missile weapons teams when Iraq refused to allow Americans on one of the teams to enter a site. The inspections were the first since Iraq gave UNSCOM one week to remove all Americans from the country on October 30. "On arrival at the site the Iraqi officials present stated that the inspection could proceed but not with its personnel of United States nationality," Butler explained in a letter to the council. "The chief inspector of the missile monitoring team told the Iraqi officials that his mission could not proceed on such a basis." "I had given instruction that in the event of such a blockage by the Iraqis, the teams were to terminate their inspection efforts and return to (their headquarters in Baghdad). As such the teams that were still proceeding to their inspection sites also terminated their missions and returned...," Butler reported. In addition, Butler told the council that Iraq has "implicitly threatened the safety" of the U-2 reconnaissance flights flown by the United States for UNSCOM. Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon sent a letter to Butler demanding that UNSCOM cancel the U-2 flights set for November 5 and 7. "I hope it would be clear that you assume the responsibility for the results of your decision to send the spy plane to Iraq, especially in these circumstances in which our anti-aircraft artillery is open everywhere in anticipation of a possible aggression," Hamdoon said. U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson called the threats on the U-2 an "irresponsible escalation" of the situation. "It's a challenge to the authority of the Security Council which is very, very serious," Butler told journalists. "It just slows down what we have to do," the UNSCOM chairman added. Economic sanctions against Iraq, including the oil embargo, will not be lifted until UNSCOM certifies that all of Iraq's chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and their programs have been destroyed and are under long-term monitoring. Of the 100 UNSCOM staff in Iraq, about 40 are inspectors with rest support or technical staff. The number of Americans in Iraq as of November 3 is 7, the U.N. said. Three Americans left the country on the normal rotation schedule since the Iraqi ultimatum and three other Americans scheduled to take their place were refused entry on October 31. "When the commission was set up initially (in 1991) it was expected to be in existence only a matter of months," Eckhard said. "It soon became clear that Iraq's cooperation in these matters would be sporadic and so permanent staff was gradually taken on and has been at work for six years." "Ambassador Butler summed it up well when he said 'Iraq wants its cake and to eat it too. It seems to want to hold on to weapons and have sanctions lifted. The choice is up to Iraq,'" Eckhard said.
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