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10 August 1998

UNITED NATIONS REPORT, AUGUST 10, 1998

(Iraq) (440)
SECRETARY GENERAL SENDS ENVOY TO IRAQ
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has sent his special envoy
for Iraq, Prakash Shah, to Baghdad to urge that government to
cooperate with UN weapons inspectors.
The Secretary General, who is traveling in Portugal, met with his
special envoy and "instructed Ambassador Shah to return to Iraq and
urge the government to cooperate fully with UN weapons inspectors," a
UN spokesman said August 10.
Talking with reporters in Portugal, Annan said that Shah would "go
back with a very firm message urging the Iraqis to change their
position."
I hope they will listen and I hope we will be able to find a way out,"
he said.
The Secretary General said that this latest impasse with Baghdad was
not over access to sites but was over "getting documents and other
things from Iraq."
In late July, UN weapons inspection experts from the United Nations
Special Commission in Iraq (UNSCOM), the body charged with assuring
that Iraq has met its post-Gulf War obligations to eliminate all
weapons of mass destruction and its capacity to produce and delivery
them, were prevented from taking copies of a document from the Iraqi
Air Force headquarters related to much sought-after information on
munitions that were filled with chemical and biological weapons during
the 1980s. The document was jointly sealed by UNSCOM and Iraqi
authorities and stored in the custody of Iraq's national monitoring
directorate until UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler visited Baghdad in
early August. Butler ended talks with Iraqi officials soon after
arriving in Baghdad.
The Security Council and Annan have declared that Iraq violated the
Gulf War cease-fire agreement by unilaterally suspending cooperation
with UN weapons inspectors. The council has issued a statement calling
Iraq's actions "totally unacceptable" and urging and early resumption
of its dialogue with the United Nations. The Secretary General has
expressed that further talks with Iraqi officials would advert another
crisis between Baghdad and the international community.
Annan spoke personally with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz
August 8 to underscore that Iraq's actions and suggestions that UNSCOM
should be restructured are not acceptable.
On August 5 Iraq's Revolution Council announced that Baghdad was
"totally suspending" cooperation with the UNSCOM and with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iraq demands that UNSCOM should be reorganized, Ambassador Richard
Butler of Australia should be removed as chairman, and Iraq should
participate as an observer at UNSCOM meetings. It also wants UNSCOM's
regional offices reorganized and its main office moved from UN
headquarters "so as to insulate it from the direct influence of the
United States."