17 August 1998
SECURITY COUNCIL WANTS IRAQ INSPECTIONS TO CONTINUE
(Council tells UNSCOM to proceed despite Iraqi objections) (650) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The Security Council August 17 was preparing to instruct UN weapons experts to resume inspections that had been put on hold since Iraq refused to cooperate further on Gulf War disarmament issues. Diplomats said the letters to the UN Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were not orders that the two groups must resume inspections but rather reminded the two of their mandates to carry out inspections. UNSCOM and IAEA notified the council August 12 that they were delaying planned chemical, biological, missile and nuclear inspections until the current impasse with Iraq had been worked out. Iraq declared earlier this month that all disarmament activities must cease. US Ambassador Bill Richardson said that "Iraq is not going to goad the United States or the Security Council into precipitous action. What is happening right now is that a record is being established -- a documentary record of Iraq's violations and refusals to comply. "Iraq is saying no to the Security Council. Iraq is saying no to the secretary general. Iraq is now saying no to Prakash Shah, the secretary general's representative. So this record is continuing," Richardson said. Richardson and other diplomats have indicated that Prakash Shah, the secretary general's special envoy to Iraq, has not been successful as yet in getting Iraq to allow the weapons inspections to continue. "The United States feels very strongly that Iraq has not been in compliance," Richardson said. "It is up to the Security Council and the secretary general to respond adequately to Iraq's totally unacceptable actions." Noting that "Iraq is causing itself serious damage," the ambassador said that "Iraq has put itself in a box. It has thrown away the key to get out of that box." "The result is that sanctions are going to stay forever -- forever means until Iraq complies with all Security Council resolutions," he said. The United States policy is to work with the Security Council to get Iraq to change its position on weapons inspections, Richardson added. "The first line of response is the Security Council acting in a united fashion," he said. The ambassador stressed that the United States has not changed its policy on dealing with Iraq. "We want Iraq to comply. We want the council to make it comply. We want the secretary general to make Iraq comply. The United States supports UNSCOM and the IAEA. We've used resources, muscle, diplomacy to do that. There is no shift in our policy," Richardson said. Talking with correspondents before a private council session on Iraq, Council President Danilo Turk of Slovenia held out hope that the diplomatic efforts of the secretary general's special envoy Prakash Shah may still bring results. In the meantime, the council is focusing on the work of UNSCOM and the IAEA, giving both groups of inspectors firm backing to continue inspections, Turk said. "Since the Iraqi declaration does not go beyond an intention, does not represent action as such, but an intention, one cannot properly use the word violation" and press for a stronger international response at this time, he explained. "This is only the beginning of the situation," Turk said. At this stage Iraq's declaration "has not gone beyond intention" not to cooperate. The president added that, as in the past, he expected a "long period of diplomatic work before any military option would become a reality." He pointed out that the last major confrontation with Iraq began in October 1997, gradually escalating to the threat of military force before the issue was defused in February 1998 by Secretary General Kofi Annan with the signing of a "memorandum of understanding" that Iraq would cooperate with the UN on the weapons inspections.
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