POLITICS-IRAQ: Baghdad Sticks to Its Guns

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 30 1998 (IPS) - U.N. efforts to end Iraq’s month- long suspension of its cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors have stalled again and Baghdad has stepped up its criticism of the weapons team.

This week began with high-level talks which saw U.N. and Iraqi officials refusing to budge from their positions, followed by U.S. and Israeli press reports that that the weapons inspectors had received crucial information from Israel. A further snag appeared Wednesday when Iraq’s foreign minister blasted what he deemed was U.S. control of the weapons team.

“Both the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) and its chairman operate under the influence of an arrogant, powerful state that is pursuing political aims against Iraq, driven by ulterior motives having nothing to do with the relevant decisions of the Security Council,” the minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, told the U.N. General Assembly.

He defended Iraq’s freezing of all cooperation with UNSCOM – which effectively ended surprise inspections of suspected Iraqi weapons sites – by arguing that “keeping to a course with nothing but dead ends and vicious circles in sight can have no other outcome than the continuation of the blockade on the people of Iraq”.

Iraqi officials alleged that the United States, which holds veto power on the 15-nation Security Council, would never agree to lifting the eight-year-old embargo against Saddam Hussein’s regime. They claim Iraq has complied with UNSCOM’s demands to scrap weapons of mass destruction – but has never been rewarded, as Council resolutions require, with the phasing out of the sanctions.

The Security Council, on the other hand, held that Iraq has yet to comply fully with the weapons demands, and this month decided to cancel further planned reviews of Iraqi sanctions until Baghdad resumed cooperation with UNSCOM.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, meanwhile, has tried to offer an incentive to Baghdad to cooperate, voicing his support for a “comprehensive review” of sanctions if it does so.

Although the focus of such a review remained vague, supporters of easing sanctions – including Russia and France, which both sit on the Council – argue that the damage done by the embargo and an evaluation of how to reward Iraq for its cooperation thus far should be on the agenda. But Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz argued that any such review should take place without Baghdad’s backing down from its hardline stance on UNSCOM.

“The idea of a comprehensive review is not a reward to be given to Iraq (in which) Iraq has to make concessions before the review takes place,” Aziz said after meeting Annan Monday. “The review is an obligation.”

“Iraq has expressed its willingness to participate effectively in such a comprehensive review, and it is its inalienable right to be able to do so,” Foreign Minister al-Sahaf told the Assembly. “Iraq also hopes that the review will be conducted under the personal supervision of the secretary-general, and that he will see to it that the said comprehensive review is bound by a clearly-defined time-table, and not allow it to be an aimless process without end,” he added.

Al-Sahaf made no statement on any step Iraq may be willing to take in turn during his speech Wednesday.

U.N. officials conceded after Aziz’s meeting with Annan, there had been little progress in bringing Baghdad back to the fold. The standoff remained a worry, since a similar snag in cooperation last winter sparked a U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf – although this time, Washington was more mcautious of even implying any military threat.

U.S. officials confirmed Wednesday that Iraq had requested a meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, but added that the request would likely be rejected.

Among other problems, the latest standoff came at a time when media reports in the Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’ and the “Washington Post” helped to bolster a long-time Iraqi propaganda claim: that its nemesis Israel had aided, and benefited from, UNSCOM’s work.

According to the two newspapers, since 1994 UNSCOM officials – including Scott Ritter, a former U.S. inspector who recently resigned from the team – received information on Iraqi biological weapons programmes from Brig. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, then-deputy director of Israeli military intelligence.

Ritter also was accused by U.S. intelligence officials of allowing Israelis to make copies of classified U-2 satellite imagery showing Iraqi weapons sites.

Israel refused to confirm or deny the media reports. Ritter has confirmed them, but has denied spying for any nation, arguing that he was simply carrying out UNSCOM’s mandate by receiving information from U.N. member states.

Nevertheless, the timing of the reports did not help UNSCOM, which was criticised by Ritter earlier this month for easing the pressure to find concealed armaments in recent months. The reported cooperation with Israel could hinder UNSCOM’s efforts to portray itself as a professional force distanced from national political biases – despite former UNSCOM official Tim Trevan’s that “it’s perfectly valid that we had contact with the Israelis.”