UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wanted Iraq to accept a Security Council roadmap for the return of UN weapons inspectors and issue a "formal invitation" for inspections to resume after nearly four years. He got neither.
Instead, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told Annan that Iraq wants to continue a dialogue with the UN on the return of inspectors -- but with conditions that the secretary-general has already rejected.
PHOTO: AFP
With the administration of US President George W. Bush stepping up talk of possible military action against Saddam Hussein, Iraq has come under increasing pressure to let the inspectors back into the country. But Sabri's letter, released Friday in Baghdad, gave no indication of any breakthrough.
In contrast to the moderate tone of Sabri's earlier invitation to chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to visit Baghdad for technical talks, the new letter was more anti-US, blaming Washington for fomenting the crisis.
"This is nothing but old wine in new bottles," a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The Iraqis know what they need to do -- and that is to allow weapons inspectors back in at once and move toward verifiable disarmament."
Robert Einhorn, a US nuclear disarmament expert who is on an advisory panel to the UN weapons inspection agency, agreed. "This is not going to meet the test."
Sabri's initial invitation to Blix on Aug. 1 raised expectations because it marked the first time Iraq had mentioned the return of inspectors since they left in December 1998 ahead of US and British airstrikes. The attacks were launched to punish Iraq for not cooperating with UN inspectors -- and Baghdad has barred the inspectors from returning.
In that letter, Sabri said Blix and Iraqi experts should meet to determine the outstanding issues about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction at the time the inspectors left and figure out how to resolve them before inspectors return.
Annan rejected that proposal Aug. 6, insisting that Iraq must abide by the plan laid out by the Security Council in a 1999 resolution.
It requires UN weapons inspectors to visit Iraq and determine within 60 days what questions Baghdad still must answer about it weapons programs.
In his latest letter to Annan, Sabri kept to Iraq's original invitation.
"We reaffirm our offer to conduct a technical round of negotiations to evaluate what was achieved in the previous phase," he said. "At the same time, the technical team of the United Nations can put forth issues deemed necessary to ... build common ground for the next inspection."
This should include "the practical arrangements for the return of the inspection system," he said.
Sabri said Iraq wants a settlement of all outstanding issues with the UN -- not just inspections. The aim of the technical talks would be "to avoid the disagreements and crises that had beset the activities of the inspectors between 1991 and 1998 and consequently to achieve an overall settlement of the problem," he said.
But Blix stressed in an interview before Sabri's new letter was released that the Security Council has not authorized him to discuss outstanding disarmament issues with Iraq.
Sanctions imposed by the Security Council after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait cannot be lifted until UN inspectors certify that its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons have been destroyed along with the long-range missiles to deliver them.
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