16 November 1998
UN WEAPONS INSPECTORS HEAD BACK TO WORK IN IRAQ
(US waiting to see if Iraq will really cooperate) (990) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- As the Security Council warned Baghdad that it must honor its agreement to allow the United Nations to finish the work outlined by the Gulf War cease-fire agreement, UN weapons inspectors prepared to return to Iraq to test Saddam Hussein's latest pledge to cooperate with the international community. After determining that the letter from Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz to Secretary General Kofi Annan was indeed a commitment to cooperate fully and unconditionally with the UN Special commission overseeing the destruction of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and ballistic missiles (UNSCOM) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Security Council issued a press statement noting the change in Iraq's position. However, the council president said in a press statement that "taking note of past experience with Iraq, Council members underlined that their confidence in Iraq's intentions needs to be established by unconditional and sustained cooperation with the special commission and the IAEA in exercising the full range of their activities provided for in the mandates." Describing President Clinton's decision to call off a military strike as statesmanlike, Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he was grateful to the president "for the courageous and difficult decision." "This is a victory for all those who expressed their firm determination that the United Nations Security Council resolutions must be respected," the secretary general said. "For the crisis to be put permanently behind us, Iraq must move swiftly to ensure complete and unconditional compliance. That is the best way towards the lifting of sanctions and a better life for the people of Iraq," Annan said. Asked if he thought the new pledge would hold, Annan said he could give no guarantees. And, he warned, "I'm not sure that if there is a next time we would even have time for further diplomatic initiatives and appeals." US Ambassador Peter Burleigh said the United States thinks it is very important that "both UNSCOM and IAEA exercise the full extent of their mandate and their range of activities," including visiting whatever site they wish and getting the documents Iraq refused to release, which started the crisis in July. UN inspectors "should be seeking the documents whenever and wherever either agency feels they need; should talk with an Iraqi official, or get a document. They should be able to get it right away. That is what Iraq has agreed to," said Burleigh, who is the chief US delegate to the United Nations. "Our position has consistently been that both UNSCOM and IAEA should execute the full range of their mandate based on their judgments about where they need to go, who they need to see, what documents they want," the ambassador said. Talking with journalists outside the Security Council chambers November 16, Burleigh said he hoped that this latest decision by the Iraqi leadership was a sign of change, but he quickly added, "we have to see what events bring to us." "I want to remind you there is a long history -- to put it mildly -- of a lack of cooperation, unilateral decisions to block activities of both UNSCOM and IAEA in Iraq," he said. "Given the history of Iraq's record, one has to wonder whether they have turned over a new leaf. We hope they have." Burleigh also sought to dispel press reports that the United States has given up on UNSCOM and IAEA inspections. "It couldn't be further from the truth," he stressed. "I don't think there has been any government that has been a stronger supporter of UNSCOM from day one" than the United States, the ambassador said. President Clinton "made crystal clear yesterday: Our overwhelming preference is to have both agencies active and vigorous on the ground," Burleigh said. The US wants to have UNSCOM and IAEA back on the ground exercising the full range of their mandate "with no second guessing from others about what it is they can do or can't do," Burleigh said. "The president made a very key point in his statement yesterday that (the inspection regime) is of historic importance: whether or not UNSCOM and the IAEA can be effective in Iraq tells a lot about the future with regard to arms control and disarmament efforts," the ambassador explained. "Whether UN inspections can be effective will have critical importance to the world because chemical and biological and nuclear weapons proliferation are the threat of the future" and, therefore, in one sense Iraq is a kind of test case, he said. The ambassador also said that he did not think that UNSCOM and IAEA had been weakened by the crisis. "UNSCOM is in a very strong position and so is IAEA," Burleigh explained. "They've got the full support of the Security Council. The secretary general himself couldn't have been clearer in the course of the weekend, especially about their role." "They have the full backing of the international community as they go back to work in Iraq and we wish them well," he said. UNSCOM weapons inspectors will begin returning to Iraq November 17 and UN humanitarian aid workers have already begun arriving in the Iraqi capital, the UN announced November 16. "Eighty-six UNSCOM and IAEA weapons inspectors will return to Baghdad Tuesday on a UN flight from Bahrain, where they have been on stand-by since they left Iraq last week," and will resume their duties on November 18, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. The Lloyd Register staff, the independent inspection agents for the UN who withdrew on November 13, are already back at three of the four entry points for supplies heading into Iraq and there has been no interruption in the availability of humanitarian supplies to the people of Iraq, Eckhard also said.
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