Iraq: Ties With UNSCOM Depend on Security Council Debate
April 28, 1998 - 0:0
BAGHDAD A senior Iraqi official warned on Monday that future cooperation with UN arms inspectors would depend on the outcome of a Security Council review on Iraq's disarmament and sanctions. The time has come to close all the arms files and move on to long-term monitoring, rather than arms inspections, Presidential Adviser General Amer Saadi told AFP. Future ties with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of disarming Iraq would be determined in the light of the results of the Security Council debate in New York, said the general, who himself is a negotiator with UNSCOM. But the council was expected to renew the sanctions, on the basis of a report from UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler that practically no progress had been made in disarming Iraq over the last six months.
Economic sanctions in force since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait can not be lifted until UNSCOM certifies it has eliminated Iraq's capacity to build weapons of mass destruction. Saadi said Butler's report issued last week had deliberately ignored what had been achieved and was designed solely to serve the objectives of the United States and Britain which are opposed to lifting the embargo.
On Sunday, Iraq insisted that the United Nations open a debate on lifting sanctions and warned that a Russian proposal to declare Baghdad free of nuclear weapons was not enough. But the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington remained flatly opposed to lifting sanctions even though Baghdad has allowed UN inspectors to enter previously off-limits presidential sites. Iraq is on a campaign to lift sanctions in the Security Council. It's not going to happen, Bill Richardson said on CNN television.
The ambassador dismissed Iraq's insistence that it has destroyed its banned chemical and biological weapons and accused Baghdad of failing to provide information to Butler. In the area of providing information, documents, in the area of accounting for weapons especially in the chemical and biological front as Butler says, there has been little progress, he said. (AFP)
Economic sanctions in force since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait can not be lifted until UNSCOM certifies it has eliminated Iraq's capacity to build weapons of mass destruction. Saadi said Butler's report issued last week had deliberately ignored what had been achieved and was designed solely to serve the objectives of the United States and Britain which are opposed to lifting the embargo.
On Sunday, Iraq insisted that the United Nations open a debate on lifting sanctions and warned that a Russian proposal to declare Baghdad free of nuclear weapons was not enough. But the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said Washington remained flatly opposed to lifting sanctions even though Baghdad has allowed UN inspectors to enter previously off-limits presidential sites. Iraq is on a campaign to lift sanctions in the Security Council. It's not going to happen, Bill Richardson said on CNN television.
The ambassador dismissed Iraq's insistence that it has destroyed its banned chemical and biological weapons and accused Baghdad of failing to provide information to Butler. In the area of providing information, documents, in the area of accounting for weapons especially in the chemical and biological front as Butler says, there has been little progress, he said. (AFP)