Don, " here we go again " Gold is at its multiyear high, we talked about it...Yen was 90 during Gulf war...
Iraq vote to end arms co-operation
By Christopher Lockwood, Diplomatic Editor
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External Links
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Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations
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How UN 'inspects' an Iraq site - Christian Science Monitor
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United Nations Special Commission - UN
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Albright defends handling of Iraq [10 Sept '98] - Washington Post
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Extended and continuing coverage of Iraq - ABC News
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News centre - Iraq Net
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Standoff with Iraq - The Password
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IRAQ'S parliament, taking advantage of the paralysis that now grips the American body politic, yesterday voted to end all co-operation with United Nations weapons inspectors in a move that diplomats fear will go unchallenged by the West.
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Unanimous: The Iraqi National Assembly votes to end co-operation with the UN weapons inspectors
The resolution, adopted unanimously, is not binding on President Saddam Hussein's cabinet, which is expected to meet on Thursday. But in August, a parliamentary resolution was used by the ruling Revolutionary Command Council as a pretext for the partial suspension of inspection missions.
Since then, the UN effort has been paralysed. Yesterday, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as a result of Iraqi non-co-operation, it is no longer able to carry out its related task of inspecting Iraq's nuclear programme.
The August decision ended the ability of UN weapons inspectors and teams from the IAEA, who are seeking to eliminate Iraq's capacity to produce nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, to inspect any site they need to without warning.
But it allowed the work of monitoring known Iraqi military and industrial installations, which might be used to make such weapons, to continue. That monitoring takes the form of regular visits to a declared list of such sites, plus the use of surveillance cameras and sensing equipment.
The parliamentary resolution, which diplomats expect Saddam will soon endorse, threatens to stop all forms of co-operation with the UN inspectors. If implemented, it will represent the end of the attempt to disarm Saddam.
Iraqi MPs recommended that the leadership decide on "a total break in relations with the UN Special Commission (Unscom)" for disarmament unless the UN restores its regular reviews of the harsh trade sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Although the sanctions have been extended at every review since then, Saddam has been able to use the review debate as a way of successfully sowing dissent among the Western and Arab alliance that defeated him. Last Wednesday, the UN Security Council, finally reacting to the August provocation of more than a month earlier, voted to suspend the regular reviews of the sanctions until UN weapons inspections are resumed.
The sanctions are linked to the work of the UN inspectors, and cannot be lifted until their mission is complete. The UN is not about to reverse its decision of a week ago, so the Iraqi threat will presumably go ahead.
Yesterday, the Iraqi parliament also warned of unspecified measures against American and British inspectors in Unscom, renewing charges they were being used as spies. A British diplomat said: "It looks as if we are in for another Iraq crisis." |
