POLITICS-IRAQ: UN Opens New Dialogue with Baghdad

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 1998 (IPS) - The United Nations is pushing ahead on a new diplomatic initiative with Iraqi leaders in an attempt to end the stand-off over U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq.

Although special UN envoy Prakash Shah was unable to announce any breakthroughs following a meeting late Thursday in Baghdad with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, diplomats here remained hopeful that Iraq can be persuaded to drop its current suspension of weapons inspections.

After meeting Aziz, Shah told reporters in Baghdad that “the dialogue will continue” and that Aziz “will bring the matter…to the notice of the leadership”. Shah described his discussions with Aziz as “very cordial and friendly”.

Shah emphasised that Iraq must resume cooperation with the weapons inspectors, and he said that Aziz had responded by repeating Iraq’s concerns over the lengthy arms inspections and eight-year-old sanctions regime.

Earlier, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had attempted to nd the stalemate over Iraq preventing the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) from on-site inspections of suspected weapons facilities, by calling for a “comprehensive review” of UN-Iraq relations.

The 15-nation UN Security Council – including the two key backers of sanctions, the United States and Britain – are considering allowing such a review, which could include consideration of Baghdad’s key demands, such as phasing out of the sanctions. But before they will allow any review, U.S. and British diplomats have said, Baghdad must end the current standoff with UNSCOM.

Iraqi ambassador Saeed Hassan told IPS that he doubted Baghdad would end the current freeze on inspections simply for “a vague promise to hold a review”. But he added that the Iraqi government is not averse to reconsidering the freeze if the Security Council will address its concerns.

“We said we are suspending, not stopping, our cooperation,” Hassan argued. As a result, cooperation with UNSCOM might resume, he added, “provided that the Council look at these issues”.

In recent months, Iraq’s allies on the Council – notably France and Russia – as well as Annan have tried to use negotiations to end both the lags in Iraq’s cooperation with UNSCOM and the seemingly endless embargo. Annan last week pointed to the “frustration and desperation of the Iraqis” when he spoke of the need for a review, and added hopefully, “The Iraqi position on this issue (the UNSCOM standoff) is not a closed one.”

Nevertheless, Iraq’s recent moves – including its taping and broadcasting of closed-door meetings between Aziz and UNSCOM Chair Richard Butler, and its new restrictions on the inspectors – have confounded even its friends in the Security Council. In a letter to Aziz Thursday, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine called Baghdad’s latest suspension “unacceptable” and warned that it must cooperate with the United Nations.

Butler has also raised the stakes in the latest dispute, warning the Security Council in a Wednesday letter that the suspension of Iraqi cooperation this past week has endangered UNSCOM’s programme for ongoing monitoring and verification of Iraqi weaponry.

The freeze on cooperation “denies the right of the Commission to inspect additional, non-declared sites, where the capabilities for conducting proscribed or monitorable activities may exist,” Butler wrote. “Such conditions significantly reduce the effectiveness of monitoring.”

Despite such problems, the United States does not regard the current standoff to be as severe as a similar crisis last winter when Washington deployed thousands of troops in the Middle East and threatened a military strike until Annan secured a resumption of inspections.

This time, most diplomats, including the U.S. mission here, have simply warned Baghdad there will be no lifting of sanctions until it has met all demands to scrap its chemical, biological, nuclear and long-range missile weapons.

Over the past year, however, most Council member states have wearied over the repeated standoffs and the ruinous sanctions regime. Many diplomats already have suggested that Aziz should come to the United Nations to discuss a comprehensive review of the UN-Iraq relationship – an idea which Hassan said Baghdad is willing to consider.