13 January 1998
DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS BACKING UNSCOM ON IRAQ ARE UNDERWAY
(Richardson expects a strong signal from UNSC) (690) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The U.N. Security Council January 13 began working on a strong presidential statement backing the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons as its executive chairman prepares to travel to Baghdad to discuss the latest confrontation over U.N. weapons inspections. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson said that the United States "feels very strongly that Iraq is violating Security Council resolutions and there must be full, unfettered access to all sites. We want to achieve that objective and we believe the first step is arming (UNSCOM chairman) Ambassador Butler with strong support from the Security Council as he pursues his trip. "What we want to see is a very strong signal from the Security Council," Richardson said. "The Security Council gives substance to diplomatic initiatives, to embargoes, to the authority of the U.N. inspection team. What the Security Council says in unison...is critically important," Ambassador Richardson said. "We believe what the Council says has enormous impact," he said. "It had so before: UNSCOM has been operating; Saddam Hussein has been contained; there have been very few prospects of sanctions lifted on Iraq...Iraq is hardly in a bargaining position," Richardson said. Nevertheless, Richardson said the United States wants "to resolve this issue diplomatically, but as we've said before we will not rule out any other contingencies. That has been our consistent policy." The latest crisis between the U.N. and Iraq developed over the past several days as Iraq objected to an inspection team headed by one of UNSCOM's chief inspectors, Scott Ritter, a U.S. national. Following through on threats delivered earlier, Iraq failed to cooperate with Ritter and a team of 30 other inspectors from 12 countries as they preprered to visit several sites in Iraq January 13. UNSCOM Executive Chairman Ambassador Richard Butler is set to leave Baghdad over the weekend to hold previously scheduled talks with Iraqi officials January 19-21. Butler told journalists after a private meeting with the Security Council that the main issue during his visit will be "those of access -- presidential and sovereign sites, but now the question of Baghdad's insistence to remove from our teams certain inspectors on the basis of their nationality. That's not acceptable to us and I'm sure that's not acceptable to the Council." British Ambassador Sir John Weston also said that there was "a wide measure of agreement around the table that there has to be unimpeded access for the Special Commission to carry out its job properly and that it is not for Iraq to set conditions on the way in which the commission goes about it's work." Richardson said that during the private meeting with Butler January 13, the Security Council "was very, very, very united in viewing Iraq's action as unacceptable. Literally all delegations expressed extreme concern over what had happened." The United States maintains that "Iraq cannot pick and choose inspectors. It is our view that once again Iraq is violating U.N. Security Council resolutions; that it cannot politicize UNSCOM; that UNSCOM is a very important agency that is doing its work," Ambassador Richardson said. He said that Iraq cannot block U.N. inspections teams because of the nationalities of the teams' members or play "political games" with the program to destroy Iraqi chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he asked Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon "to communicate to the Iraqi leaders my personal concern for what was happening and that it was important to wait for Mr. Butler's arrival to discuss whatever issues they had but not to move ahead and precipitate matters." "This is a crisis of sorts, but it is a crisis that is containable, Annan said. "Other governments are in touch with the Iraqi authorities and I hope reason will be brought to bear and that the inspectors will be allowed to carry on with their work unimpeded."
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