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To: Czechsinthemail who wrote (19460)	4/17/1998 8:25:00 AM
From: Teddy	Respond to of 95453

OT, sort of Update on UN progress in iraq U.N.: No Progress Made in Iraqi Disarmament By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. weapons inspectors said Friday they made "virtually no progress" over the past six months in verifying that Iraq has destroyed any remaining weapons of mass destruction, a key condition for lifting sanctions. Richard Butler, the chief arms inspector, said in a report to the Security Council that a series of crises when Iraq repeatedly disrupted the work of the inspectors made it impossible for his experts to do their work. "If this is what Iraq intended by the crisis, then, in large measure, it could be said to have been successful," he said in his 36-page biannual report obtained by Reuters. "A major consequence of the four-month crisis authorized by Iraq has been that, in contrast with the prior reporting period, virtually no progress in verifying disarmament has been able to be reported," he said. Consequently, he was no closer to giving Iraq a clean bill of health than he was when he issued his last major report in October. Using harsh language, Butler said, "Iraq's heightened policy of disarmament by declaration, no matter how vigorously pursued or stridently voiced, cannot remove the need for verification as the key means through which the credibility of its claim can be established." Clashes between the inspectors and Iraqi officials began in June and escalated in October. On Feb. 23, Secretary-General Kofi Annan went to Baghdad to open up all sites to Butler's inspectors and prevent Iraq from banning searches altogether. Butler, chairman of the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), has to certify Iraq has no more ballistic, chemical or biological weapons before the Security Council can consider easing sweeping sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Butler, however, held out an olive branch to Iraq, saying that if Baghdad offered "full and real cooperation" his commission would be willing to "verify honestly" Iraq's claim that it no longer had any banned weapons or related programs. Butler's report, which outlines the status of inspections and Baghdad's compliance over the last six months, argued that Iraq spent too much time talking about process and procedures rather than "issues related to the destruction, removal or rendering harmless of Iraq's prohibited weapons systems." To make matters worse he said suggestions by Iraq and other countries for "technical evaluation teams," known as TEMs, on specific weapons programs were too time consuming and slowed down the commission's work in the field. "The question of the possible substitution of TEMs for more concrete work in the field, whether by accident or design, is a matter of concern to the commission," he said. The work of these groups of outside experts have "proven to be political in character rather than technical" even if they backed UNSOM's positions on missing data from Iraq. On the individual weapons programs, Butler said Iraq maintained that it had disclosed or destroyed all its warheads that could carry chemical or biological agents. If any remained, the material in them had degraded. But Butler said the commission in a recent visit to Baghdad demonstrated that four intact 155 mm shells filled with mustard gas were still of the highest quality "despite seven years of exposure to extreme climatic conditions." On biological weapons, the report said Iraq was far from accounting for its germ warfare program, when it began or "whether or when it was terminated." In March, he said the commission discovered a 1994 document that indicated a program for the manufacture of nozzles for spray dryers that could be used to help make biological weapons. U.N. arms experts said Iraq had not yet told the commission why it wanted to use the equipment. As if anticipating Butler's negative report, Iraq Thursday warned of a new crisis if the embargo on oil exports were not lifted. "The time has come for the lifting of the embargo completely and comprehensively" when the Security Council reviews the sanctions April 27, said a statement from the Revolutionary Command Council, Saddam's inner cabinet and his ruling Baath Party carried by the Iraqi news agency. The statement warned there could be a new crisis if the sanctions dragged on, raising fears that Iraq would clash with the United Nations again despite the agreement with Annan. But Annan, questioned at a news conference, said he had no official information of any change in position by the Iraqi leaders. And Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Nizar Hamdoon told Reuters the statement called for "movement" towards ending sanctions and should not be interpreted as a threat.