Iraq Invites Chief UN Weapons Inspector Blix to Visit Baghdad
By Todd Zeranski
United Nations, Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq invited the head of the United Nations weapons monitoring team to visit Baghdad for talks that may lead to a resumption of inspections to verify Iraq isn't producing weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri made the invitation in a letter sent yesterday to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Sabri invited Hans Blix, the chairman of the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC), and members of his team to hold technical talks with Iraqi officials ``at the earliest agreed upon time.''
The visit is aimed at ``reaching common ground on the scientific and practical criteria that will be adopted and resolve what UNMOVIC might see as pending issues'' concerning disarmament, a translated version of Sabri's letter, provided to Bloomberg News, said. There hasn't been any comment by UN officials on the invitation.
U.S. President George W. Bush has said Iraq will face unspecified military action if it doesn't allow the return of UN inspectors expelled by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 1998. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday ended two days of hearings on whether military action should be taken to oust Saddam Hussein.
Bush has said U.S. policy calls for a change of government in Iraq and Washington will use ``all the tools at our disposal'' to remove the Iraqi regime.
The U.S. Defense Department is drawing up plans to invade Iraq, the New York Times has reported. The Bush administration will host representatives of six Iraqi opposition groups this month to try to form a unified front against Saddam Hussein.
Delaying Tactic
Iraq's invitation is ``a delaying tactic to put the U.S. off its game,'' Edward Turzanski, a political science and national security professor at La Salle University, Philadelphia, said yesterday.
``What Iraq has done over and over is use the process of UN inspections as a way of delaying the international community and particularly the U.S. from taking direct action,'' Turzanski said. ``It's going to be very difficult to get anyone other than Great Britain to support the U.S. in taking any action at this time. I would expect other countries to say that Iraq has to be given an opportunity to cooperate with the inspectors.''
Crude oil for September delivery fell as much as 47 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $26.00 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its lowest level since July 9, on news of the Iraqi invitation. It traded at $26.23 at 10.01 a.m. Singapore time today. During floor trading in New York yesterday, crude oil fell 55 cents, or 2 percent, to $26.47.
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