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To: sand wedge who wrote (31605)	11/9/1998 9:44:00 AM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

Iraq Maintains Defiance, U.N. Monitors Leave Reuters Photo By Hassan Hafidh BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq maintained its defiance of the United Nations over weapons inspections Monday as more U.N. monitors left the country. Iraqi newspapers poured scorn of U.S. threats of military action, saying Iraq would lose nothing if the United States attacked it and vowed that Baghdad would not submit to American ''oppression.'' ''We have clarified our position since we have declared it,'' Iraq's Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh said of Baghdad's decision to halt all cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors. Saleh told reporters he had nothing to say when asked if U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would travel to Baghdad to resolve the stand-off. Prakash Shah, the U.N. envoy who is mediating a solution to the crisis with Iraqi officials as entrusted by Annan, said that he discussed with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz a visit to Iraq by the U.N. chief. ''Naturally the subject came in the course of our discussions with Mr. Aziz. But the secretary-general is visiting Western Sahara and as he commented yesterday he has no current plans to visit the region,'' the Indian diplomat said. Annan appealed to Iraq while visiting Nouakchott Sunday to urgently rescind its decision to stop cooperating with weapons inspectors. Iraq said on October 31 it was suspending all cooperation with UNSCOM inspections until the Security Council reviewed sanctions imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The Security Council responded by condemning Iraq and demanding that it reverse its decision immediately. In Washington, President Clinton met senior security advisers Sunday to discuss the crisis. A spokesman said Clinton asked aides to report back to him on both diplomatic and military options. ''Iraq will not lose anything if the American administration fulfils its (military) threats but America will be the loser,'' the ruling Baath party newspaper al-Thawra said in a front-page editorial. The paper said Baghdad needed to assess its ties with U.N. weapons inspectors and the Security Council after Washington and London threatened to use force to secure Iraq's compliance with the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) charged with ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. The government newspaper al-Jumhouriya said threats of military strike would not force Iraq to change its stand. ''Threats would not weaken Iraqis but they would consolidate their rallying around their leader Saddam Hussein,'' the paper said. Five arms monitors left Baghdad for Bahrain Monday and 10 more would leave Wednesday, said Caroline Cross, special assistant to the director of the Baghdad Monitoring and Verification Center (MVC). Fifteen monitors left Iraq Saturday after a decision by UNSCOM chairman Richard Butler to reduce its Baghdad-based staff by 20 percent. Cross said with over 100 staff remaining in the country after Wednesday, UNSCOM had the capacity to resume its work immediately. ''We do retain the capacity to start our work again and the people who are remaining behind do have the skills and the experience to do our work should become necessary,'' she said. Baghdad has allowed the monitors to continue to maintain surveillance equipment at hundreds of sites already identified as having weapons of mass destruction. UNSCOM technicians visited Iraqi weapons sites during the past week to fix cameras. It has also permitted the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. watchdog for nuclear weapons, to continue its monitoring activities. Visiting former Irish prime minister Albert Roynolds said if U.S. and British leaders visited sanctions-hit Iraqi hospitals and saw that children were dying they would not consider any military strike. ''If Clinton and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair stood in the hospital that I stood and witnessed what I had witnessed, I think the question of referring to war will be put side,'' he told reporters in Baghdad. Roynolds is visiting Iraq together with Tam Dalyell, a British MP from the Labor Party, and Michael Lanigal, Irish MP to check the impact of the U.N sanctions on the Iraqi people.

To: sand wedge who wrote (31605)	11/9/1998 9:47:00 AM
From: Captain James T. Kirk	Respond to of 95453

FOCUS-Oil struggles higher but IEA sees weak demand LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices inched higher on Monday despite warnings that economic slowdown is stunting world petroleum demand even more than previously thought. International marker Brent was five cents up at $12.40 a barrel by 1155 GMT, a third down on last year's $19.30 average and less than a $1 above August's 10-year lows. The latest blow for producers came as the International Energy Agency (IEA) said world oil consumption this year is proving even weaker than expected and cautioned that the chances of any significant recovery next year have receded. The energy watchdog's monthly oil market report sliced its fourth quarter global demand forecast by 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) out of a 74.3 million bpd total. It cut next year's demand estimates by 400,000 bpd. Recent low demand figures for the United States, Mexico, South Korea and China showed how wider economic problems were sapping oil demand, the IEA said. ''The extended period of demand weakness is increasingly consistent with weakening underlying consumption in response to the deteriorating economic situation,'' it said. ''The projection for global demand remains sensitive to further downward revision.'' Sunday's surprise meeting between Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi and Iranian counterpart Bijan Namdar Zanganeh in Tehran highlighted producer concern at enfeebled prices. ''We discussed the oil markets without any resolution. We talked and we tried to close our opinions together,'' said Iran's Zanganeh. The talks took place ahead of OPEC's next full ministerial meeting on November 25, which will focus on the possibility of prolonging existing production cuts or imposing new ones. OPEC has clubbed together with non-OPEC producers this year for two rounds of output cuts, pledging to shed a total of 3.1 million bpd. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, making a second public statement on the oil price crisis in the last two weeks, reiterated his call for compliance with the pledged sacrifices. ''Although there is a desire on the part of some nations to avert the negative effects of some present-day non-compliance, the oil market reveals the need for all nations to have a common will -- especially those which agreed to cut their production,'' Prince Abdullah said on Saturday. OPEC members Kuwait and Algeria have called for further output cuts to salvage prices. But key producers Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and non-OPEC Mexico have made it clear they do not want to make more reductions. Prices in dollars per barrel: Nov 9 Nov 6 (1155 GMT) (close) IPE December Brent 12.40 12.35 NYMEX December light crude 13.88 13.87 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------