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Israelis Warn of Saddam Danger

Iraq News, SEPTEMBER 17, 1998

The central focus of Iraq News is the tension between the considerable, proscribed WMD capabilities that Iraq is holding on to and its increasing stridency that it has complied with UNSCR 687 and it is time to lift sanctions. If you wish to receive Iraq News by email, a service which includes full-text of news reports not archived here, send your request to Laurie Mylroie .

I.   EHUD BARAK WARNS OF SADDAM DANGER, AFP, SEPT 17
II.  AARON LERNER, WARNS OF SADDAM DANGER, JERUSALEM POST, SEPT 17
III. AARON LERNER, WARNS OF SADDAM DANGER, IMRA, SEPT 15
I. EHUD BARAK WARNS OF SADDAM DANGER
Barak warns that Iraq is taking advantage of world inattention
Thu 17 Sep 98 - 01:38 GMT 
LOS ANGELES, Sept 15 (AFP) - Iraq will take steps to get rid of the 
United Nations weapons inspectors and proceed with its weapons program, 
a top Israeli Labor Party leader predicted Wednesday, even as Baghdad 
vowed to halt cooperation.
   Once free of inspectors, Iraq will renew within two years the 
production of chemical and biological warfare materials and will have 
the capability of building simple nuclear devices within three to four 
years, Ehud Barak said.
  "They will launch in a few days a new effort to get rid of the UN 
inspection," Barak told the Los Angeles World Affairs Council as Iraq 
contemporaneously vowed to end cooperation with UN arms experts.
  "The danger is very immediate," Barak added.
  Iraq vowed Wednesday it would end cooperation if the United States and 
Britain don't lift crippling eight-year sanctions, with the oil embargo 
the most damaging to Baghdad.
   The sanctions were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and 
they cannot be lifted until the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) for 
disarmament certifies that Baghdad no longer has weapons of mass 
destruction.
  Iraq is accelerating its nuclear program and is applying an "intensive 
effort" to get weapons and delivery systems from North Korea and 
"private'" Russian firms, Barak said.
  "We know for sure that the Iraqi scientists and engineers have the 
know-how to build simple nuclear devices," he said. "You cannot 
eliminate know-how from their minds."
  The Knesset member, who was once chief of staff of Israeli Defense 
Forces, said he has raised the matter with President Bill Clinton, 
French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
  Barak added that it is vital for world leaders to encourage UN 
Secretary General Kofi Annan "to stand firm" in dealing with Iraq.
  Annan on Wednesday completed consultations with Security Council 
members on his proposals for a "comprehensive review" of the sanctions.
  The UN chief early this year defused a crisis between Iraq and UNSCOM 
in February over weapons inspectors' access to presidential sites, by 
offering Baghdad an accelerated inspection program.
  But Iraq-UNSCOM cooperation broke down again on August 5 when Iraq 
suspended cooperation with inspectors from UNSCOM and the International 
Atomic Energy Agency but allowed arms monitoring to continue.
  Barak said President Saddam Hussein senses world attention shifting to 
other issues, inferring the sex scandal engulfing the Clinton 
administration as well as global economic gyrations.
  "There is a strong tendency to deny a long-term threat ... if it does 
not touch you.  But the threat is there, not just to Israel but to the 
stability of democratic institutions," he said.
  Petroleum that flows through the Gulf still provides 25 to 30 percent 
of oil used by Europe and 70 percent of oil consumed by Japan, he said.