POLITICS: Iraq Again Obstructs UN Arms Inspectors

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9 1998 (IPS) - Iraqi officials blocked U.N. arms inspectors from a Baghdad building Wednesday in an incident viewed here as “serious’ – coming less than than one month after Iraq averted a U.S. military strike by agreeing to the inspections.

The Iraqis blocked several inspectors from the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), which monitors the destruction of Iraqi weapons, from the headquarters of the ruling Baath Party in Baghdad. Instead of allowing the UNSCOM search, part of a series of unannounced inspections to be carried out this week and next, the officials demanded a written list of what the inspectors were seeking.

“We were blocked, and that is very serious,” said UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler.

Iraq agreed on Nov. 14 to end an earlier standoff with UNSCOM and allow the U.N. inspectors unconditional access to Iraqi sites. As part of the agreement, UNSCOM would carry out unannounced visits to Iraqi sites, which were likely to end by early next week.

After these inspections Butler was to report to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq’s overall compliance with the United Nations’ disarmament demands.

With Wednesday’s act, however, that schedule now appeared to be off course. The question also arose of whether the United States would attack Iraq for its defiance – as U.S. President Bill Clinton and other officials have threatened – or whether Iraq would be punished by a delay in any review of U.N. sanctions.

Significantly, the Iraqi obstruction came shortly after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is visiting Paris, told the French Parliament Tuesday that “any military intervention by the international community must be approved by the Security Council.”

That comment was cited approvingly in ‘Babel’, a pro-government Iraqi newspaper owned by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s son Udai. If the Council must approve any military attack, Iraq has been depending on its veto-holding allies in the 15-nation Council – France, Russia and China – to block it.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said that Annan had been informed of the latest incident Wednesday but had made no official comment.

Last month, the United States appeared to have the support it needed from Arab states – and a lack of opposition in the Security Council – to attack Iraq when Baghdad briefly ended all cooperation with UNSCOM monitors. Clinton called off a U.S. missile strike when Iraq agreed to allow the inspections to resume. Since then U.S. officials have remained muted in their comments.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright remained adamant that Washington’s hands would not be bound by the Security Council, telling a French newspaper that otherwise, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) could be constrained by a veto. National Security Council spokesman David Leavy added that U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf remain poised to act and that Washington expects full cooperation from Iraq.

Yet the politics governing the Iraq standoff have already shifted. Few diplomats believe that the United States can strike Iraq once Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting, begins on Dec. 18.

Diplomats noted that global politics also had not helped, particularly the current unrest in Israel and the Palestinian territories, where Israel’s shaky coalition government has been pitted against growing Palestinian protests.

Between the Israeli-Palestinian problems, which have undercut Washington’s efforts to build up trust with Arab states, and Clinton’s own domestic impeachment fight, the White House now may lack the standing it had a month ago to initiate any action against Iraq, diplomats opined.

The diplomatic calendar also has changed. With Saddam Hussein clearly expecting the Security Council to review sanctions following his decision to allow inspections to resume, Iraq’s allies have become emboldened to expect such a “comprehensive review” wiothin the next few weeks.

One Council diplomat told IPS that he expected the review, including a look at the effects of the eight-year-old U.N. embargo on Iraq, could take place early in January.

Butler had promised to deliver his report, perhaps even by next week, to the Council on Iraqi cooperation with UNSCOM, which had been expected to pave the way for the review. But Wednesdays incident following on Iraq’s recent hindrance of UNSCOM activities could derail the chances for a positive recommendation from Butler – and delay a review of sanctions yet again.

“I’m not going to make a judgment now on (Iraq’s) full cooperation,” Butler said on Monday. At that time he complained “We’ve not been given all the documents and explanations for which we have asked.”