26 February 1998
RICHARDSON PLEASED WITH UN ANSWERS ON UNSCOM
(US satisfied by UNSCOM control of presidential site inspections) (690) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson said February 26 that he is "heartened" by the explanations he has received from the United Nations on the operational details of the agreement signed by Secretary General Kofi Annan and Iraq a few days ago. The United States praised Annan's diplomatic initiative to end the crisis with Iraq and advert military strikes, but withheld final judgment until it got clarification on one section of the pact that dealt with inspecting presidential sites by a "special group" of diplomats and U.N. weapons inspectors. At a press conference earlier in the day February 26, the chairman of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, said the pact will "strengthen UNSCOM in the conduct of its work in Iraq," adding that it will be "an additional resource ... to enable us to do the work in those designated sites within Iraq." The new arrangements, Butler said, "are entirely satisfactory to me and the organization that I lead. They will give us access to the presidential sites in Iraq which have now been described accurately as a consequence of the work of the U.N. mapping team." Butler noted that UNSCOM will still be in charge of the inspections and the scientific analysis will continue to be carried out by UNSCOM experts. The diplomatic observers who will be part of the new special inspection group will ensure that both UNSCOM inspectors and Iraq will both "behave appropriately." The lines of authority and reporting between Butler and the council are "clear and I find them entirely satisfactory," the UNSCOM chairman said. The U.N. also announced the appointment U.N. Undersecretary General Jayantha Dhanapala, a renowned disarmament expert and former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Washington, as the UNSCOM commissioner who will be in charge of the presidential site inspections along with Butler. Richardson said many of the questions the United States had posed to the secretary general about the role of UNSCOM "have been answered in a positive sense." He said the U.S. is "pleased" with the explanations on "the preeminence of UNSCOM, the role of Ambassador Butler and the selection of the special group, the fact that UNSCOM is the sole supervising authority (and) that it retains operational control." Richardson said the United States' position on testing Iraq's willingness to live up to the new agreement "is very clear." "We think there should be testing soon. We think this is a decision UNSCOM should make, obviously, but we believe there should be testing of the agreement of the presidential and sensitive sites. That means ... getting access to sensitive sites, getting access to presidential sites," he said. "Iraq, in writing, has said they will allow free and unfettered access to sensitive and presidential sites without any conditions," Richardson said. "The proof is in the testing." "Let the inspectors come in and do their testing. Let's see if Iraq complies," he said. Butler said he looks forward to implementing the agreement "as soon as possible and ... to going out into the field and testing in practice what is written on paper." But he refused to give any indication when UNSCOM might mount an inspection of one of the eight presidential sites. The two-page agreement, which was signed by Annan and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on February 23, reconfirms Iraq's acceptance of all Security Council resolutions, including the Gulf War cease-fire resolution (687); states Iraq's agreement to accord weapons inspectors "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access" to all sites; and sets up special procedures for investigating the presidential sites. According to the agreement, the secretary general was to establish, in consultation with Butler, a special group of senior diplomats and experts drawn from UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). That group will now be headed by Dhanapala. (For more information on this subject, contact our special Iraq website at: http://www.usia.gov/iraq)
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