DATE=9/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=UN-ALBRIGHT / IRAQ (L)
NUMBER=2-266405
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is again
blaming Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for keeping his
country under United Nations economic sanctions,
telling reporters (Tuesday) the Iraqi leader has the
key to lift sanctions when ever he wants. V-O-A's
Nick Simeone reports from the United Nations that
unlike in years past, Washington is making no mention
of military force if Baghdad continues to hold out.
TEXT: A new, reconstituted United Nations team of
weapons inspectors led by Swedish diplomat Hans Blix
is ready to return to Iraq and resume the search for
Baghdad's suspected weapons of mass destruction. But
they're not likely to get there.
For the better part [EDS: most] of a decade, Baghdad
and the United Nations have been in a tug of war, with
Iraq demanding that sanctions be lifted while
Washington and a diminishing number of its allies
insisting that Iraq first be declared free of banned
weapons.
With U-N efforts to resolve the Iraqi matter seemingly
going nowhere, Secretary of State Albright chose what
will likely be her last formal visit to the United
Nations not to undermine the U-N approach to Iraq with
new threats of military force. She spoke to
reporters outside the General Assembly.
/// ALBRIGHT ACT ///
We have made clear so many times Saddam Hussein
is the one that can pick up the key to let
himself out of the sanctions box and the key is
allowing Hans Blix's new UNMOVIC [EDS: U-N
weapons inspection team] to go in and do its
job. He is the one who is victimizing his own
people.
/// END ACT ///
In recent months, Iraq has been earning billions of
dollars selling unlimited amounts of oil at a time
when crude prices are reaching 10-year highs. In
light of that, Secretary Albright blamed any
humanitarian crisis due to U-N sanctions squarely on
Baghdad.
But in a sign that Iraq may be less likely to
cooperate with the United Nations than ever before,
Secretary General Kofi Annan has told the Security
Council Baghdad is refusing even to allow an
independent team of experts into the country to take a
fresh look at the humanitarian situation. (SIGNED)
NEB/NJS/JP
12-Sep-2000 13:42 PM LOC (12-Sep-2000 1742 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
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