Wednesday August 5 4:00 PM EDT
Iraq Freezes Cooperation With U.N.
WAIEL FALEH Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Protesting eight years of crippling economic sanctions, Saddam Hussein broke off cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors on Wednesday and demanded the commission monitoring the weapons be reorganized.
Saddam decided to ''completely suspend cooperation with the U.N. Special Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency,'' after a meeting with senior officials, a government statement said.
The move came hours after Iraq's 250-member National Assembly voted unanimously to cut off cooperation and called for an end to sanctions. Legislators complained in a statement that the inspectors would never give Iraq a clean bill of health on its weaponry.
Talks broke down Monday between chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler and Iraq's lead negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
Arriving in New York, Butler said Wednesday that if Iraq decided to break ''cooperation with us and make a run for it on their own, that is very serious. And the Security Council will have to deal with that.''
Butler said he would present his findings to the Security Council on Thursday.
Saddam's announcement, read over national television, means that U.N. experts can no longer search suspected weapons sites in Iraq, a mission that the U.N. commission has been carrying out since 1991 in a bid to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Still, Saddam said he would exempt U.N. monitoring activities in Iraq from his decision, meaning that cameras and sensors installed in suspected weapons sites can remain in place.
He also called for a change in the makeup of the commission and the people that oversee its inspectors.
Reaction from Britain and the United States appeared muted compared with past confrontations when the two countries threatened military action.
A White House spokesman scoffed at Saddam's latest refusal to cooperate with the inspectors, calling it ''a game of cat-and-mouse'' and saying any military response would be premature.
''We're not willing to play this game,'' P.J. Crowley, spokesman for President Clinton's National Security Council, said Wednesday.
Yuriy Fedotov, Russia's No. 2 man at the United Nations, said Wednesday that further deterioration of the situation must be prevented, and ''still there is hope that a major crisis can be prevented.''
He said Butler had not properly consulted with the Security Council before breaking off talks.
The sanctions were imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait, which prompted the Persian Gulf War. They cannot be lifted until the inspectors certify that Iraq has destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles. The sanctions ban Iraq from freely exporting its most valuable commodity - oil.
The U.N. monitoring program has been marked by frequent confrontations and disruptions. Iraq says the sanctions are devastating its economy.
Butler had earlier sought to play down the seriousness of the confrontation, saying during a stopover in London that he told U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the troubles should not be exaggerated.
''I said very specifically to him that I don't think any of us should describe this as a crisis,'' Butler told BBC radio.
Butler said he did not understand why Aziz cut short their meeting Monday since he told Aziz the inspectors were ''very close'' to certifying that Iraq had destroyed its missiles and chemical weapons. However, he added, they were not near to solving the problem of biological weapons.
Butler's political adviser, Gustavo Zlauvinen, said Aziz also refused to accept a proposal to speed up the pace of weapons inspections.
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