U.S. option: Let the U.N. handle Iraq
Lack of support for using force is cited as one reason for the decision.
By John Donnelly
INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - For the fourth time in a year, President Clinton has an Iraq crisis on his
hands, but now his administration is considering only one option: Let the United Nations deal with
Saddam Hussein.
As in crises Nos. 1, 2 and 3, Clinton and his advisers denounced the Iraqi president's decision
Saturday to suspend the U.N. weapons inspection program.
If Iraq doesn't budge in the latest standoff, Hussein's decision "will backfire," Clinton said
yesterday after meeting with his top national security team. "Far from dividing the international
community and achieving concessions, his obstructionism . . . has only served to deepen the
international community's resolve."
He added: "Until the inspectors are back on the job, no options are off the table."
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen was to leave last night for Europe and the Middle East. He
will try to shore up support for maintaining military and economic sanctions against Iraq, and
"explore appropriate next steps," spokesman Kenneth Bacon said.
But two American officials involved in Iraqi policy said in interviews that all other options,
including the use of force, were not now being seriously considered. They said the
administration's goals had narrowed to keeping sanctions intact as a way of limiting Hussein's
military power. The use of force has fallen aside for lack of international support, they added.
In the short run, these senior officials said, the most difficult position for the Americans would be
if Hussein reversed position and allowed the inspections to resume with complete freedom. If that
happened, said one of the policymakers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, "it opens the
door for the sanctions to end."
Iraq, which has been punished severely by the sanctions, wants the United Nations to set a date
for their end. Without such an assurance, Iraqi officials say, there is no reason to continue
cooperating with the U.N. inspections.
The sanctions were imposed more than eight years ago following Iraq's 1990 invasion of
neighboring Kuwait, and have devastated the country's health, education and social fabric.
But the West also sees a major benefit: In the last seven years, U.N. weapons inspectors have
dismantled large parts of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear programs to a far greater degree
than the U.S. bombardment during the Persian Gulf war.
Hussein's repeated confrontations with the United Nations only strengthen Clinton's and his
advisers' hand in keeping the sanctions intact, analysts said.
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright talked yesterday with her counterparts in Russia and
France, who have long tried to ease the sanctions.
"The French and the Russians have had a policy based on Saddam being more reasonable, but
that is blowing up in their face," one of the American policymakers said. "Our policy is to keep
Saddam in a box, as tight a box as possible. It should stand, provided that Saddam doesn't
cooperate with the U.N. What's worse would be if he cooperates, and then there's a timetable"
to ease part of sanctions.
In the meantime, however, the U.N. weapons inspectors, known by their acronym, UNSCOM,
have not been allowed to conduct arms inspections since Aug. 9. This disruption of nearly three
months has led to increasing distress among members of the U.S. Congress who fear that Iraq
could rebuild its weapons of mass destruction without the intrusive inspectors.
For the time being, Iraq is making fine distinctions in what it will allow and what it won't: Even
though it suspended UNSCOM inspections, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors
have continued their work. Iraqi guards even escorted an UNSCOM team on a mission
yesterday to fix a faulty surveillance camera in an Iraqi factory. And all 120 UNSCOM
inspectors remain in Iraq.
U.N. Security Council members met informally yesterday to consider what steps to take next.
They are expected to consider further resolutions today aimed at restarting the weapons
inspections. The council condemned on Saturday Iraq's recent suspension of inspections.
The recent spate of confrontations began Nov. 3, 1997, when Iraq barred U.N. teams with
American inspectors, accusing them of spying. Russian diplomats diffused the crisis later that
month, saying they would work toward lifting U.N. sanctions. New trouble flared in January,
when Iraq failed to provide the needed escorts for the U.N. inspectors. With Washington
threatening unilateral force, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew to Baghdad and negotiated
a deal with Hussein to open presidential palaces for inspection. Iraq suspended cooperation in
August and again on Saturday.
Since the standoff early this year, the United States has conspicuously shied away from
threatening military action against Iraq. And in August, Albright personally asked UNSCOM
leaders to hold off on investigations of time-sensitive, promising leads on weapons inspections. In
both cases, the administration found little international support for a confrontation.
The lack of support for the U.S. fight to maintain sanctions is most striking among Iraq's
neighbors. "The Arab states no longer share the United States' view that there is a military threat
from Iraq anymore," Volker Perthes, a German political analyst and Middle East expert, said at a
Georgetown University conference yesterday on Iraq.
Iraq's relations with its neighbors are improving, he noted. Turkey, through which many goods
are smuggled in and out of Iraq, has reinstituted full diplomatic relations. Syria and Egypt are
talking with the six Persian Gulf states about new economic initiatives with Iraq. And Saudi
Arabia, which was so threatened by Iraq during the gulf war that it served as a military base for
the allied front against Hussein, recently restarted commercial relations.
>>>BTW, Russia and France are owed the most money by Iraq. |
