Iraqi Official Rules Out Inspections
Remarks Appear to Undermine Recent Talks With U.N.
By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 12, 2002; 4:08 PM
CAIRO, Aug. 12 – The Iraqi information minister said today the mission of U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq is "finished," the strongest official suggestion to date that President Saddam Hussein has no intention of allowing the inspectors to return.
Given Iraq's often opaque approach to diplomacy, it was uncertain the degree to which the statement, by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, reflected a definitive decision to refuse demands by the United States and the United Nations that the U.N. weapons inspections resume. But in any case, the remarks seemed to undermine recent talks between Iraq and the United Nations over conditions under which the inspectors would be allowed back.
Weapons inspections, mandated by the armistice that ended the Gulf War in 1991, were suspended in 1998 after Iraq refused access to Hussein's presidential palaces. Their resumption is a key demand by the Bush administration, although President Bush and his lieutenants have said overthrowing Hussein is their ultimate goal in any case.
U.N., western and Arab leaders agree that the inspections should continue unconditionally, but Iraq has demanded guarantees that a renewed inspection program would be of short duration and lead to the lifting of decade-old economic sanctions.
The United Nations had no comment on Sahhaf's statement, Reuters reported from U.N. headquarters in New York. The chief U.N. spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the world body had last communicated with Iraq in last week's letter from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri saying the inspectors must return under rules laid down by the Security Council.
"We're still awaiting an official reply to that letter," Eckhard told reporters.
Sabri later told reporters in Baghdad that a reply is being prepared. But he did not say what it will contain.
The State Department, briefing reporters in Washington, accused Hussein's government of seeking to wriggle out of its obligations to admit inspectors and dismantle all programs to produce nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
"They refuse to face up to their obligations and obfuscate and look for ways to move the goalposts when it's a simple situation," said a spokesman, Philip Reeker. "The issue is not inspections but verified disarmament. Iraq needs to disarm."
A number of Arab leaders and regional diplomats have expressed belief that, in the end, the Baghdad government will eventually allow inspections to resume, if only as a way to buy time and enlist support against the U.S. plans to bring about Hussein's downfall. Interviewed on the Qatar-based Al Jazeerah television station, however, Sahhaf said flatly that "inspections have finished in Iraq." He charged that the issue is being manipulated by the United States to create a pretext for a military strike.
Sahhaf said the U.N. inspectors have achieved the work required by the Gulf War armistice and thus are not required in the country any longer. Although the Security Council and many of Iraq's Arab neighbors disagree with that assessment, Sahhaf was adamant that the whole controversy "is a lie" fabricated by the United States.
"The work within the U.N. concerning (prohibited weapons) in Iraq, this work has been achieved. They say that it hasn't been achieved. They claim something remains. This talk can be responded to and disproved," Sahhaf said in the television interview, according to an Associated Press report. "This is a lie."
The Bush administration contends that Iraq continues to try to develop weapons of mass destruction, posing a potential threat to the region and, if he is willing to provide the technology to terrorist groups, to the United States as well.
Iraq has in one regard been consistent for several years in saying that the inspectors would never return, largely, according to officials in Baghdad, because the government feels it has no incentive to let them. Since the dispute intensified in 1998 and resulted in a four-day U.S. bombing campaign, the perception among Iraqi officials is that the United States will always insist there is more inspections work to be done, never allow the sanctions to be lifted and attack militarily when it sees fit, regardless of whether the inspectors are allowed back or not.
However, the government has also hinted it is willing to negotiate. Several Arab leaders say they have been told as much by top Iraqis and hence believe the inspections issue can be resolved peacefully. When Sahhaf was replaced as foreign minister last year, in favor of Sabri's less confrontational style, it was viewed by some analysts as part of an effort to reach a compromise on the inspections issue.
Even as Sahhaf was making his statements today, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher insisted in Kuwait that Iraq could avoid a military confrontation by abiding by the U.N. inspections program and a British member of Parliament said Hussein personally assured him of plans to do so.
George Galloway, a frequent visitor to Baghdad and an opponent of U.S. policy toward the country, recounted a recent meeting with the Iraqi leader in a column for The Mail newspaper, saying Hussein told him he "accepted and would implement" all U.N. resolutions.
In recent weeks Iraq has also asked U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to visit for further discussions about resuming inspections and the Iraqi Parliament issued an invitation – quickly declined – for members of the U.S. Congress to make a fact-finding tour.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
washingtonpost.com |
