Britain and US spike Saddam's guns over changes to arms inspections
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Your support makes all the difference.The UN inspectors in charge of destroying Iraq's non-conventional weapons have returned to work. But Patrick Cockburn reports that Iraq's ambassador to the UN says the crisis will erupt again if sanctions are not modified.
Iraq is seen in the Middle East to have emerged victorious in its confrontation with the US over UN weapons inspectors. But at the weekend it learnt there were limits to its apparent success. At the UN the first effort by Russia, which brokered an end to the crisis, failed get the procedures for arms inspections changed.
In a report on Saturday to the Security Council, the 20-nation UN Special Commission on Iraq rejected the Russian proposals and reaffirmed that Iraq had violated UN resolutions requiring it to destroy strategic weapons. "If nothing is resolved because of American pressure on the council members, then in ... weeks or months, we could get back into a similar [crisis] situation," said Nizar Hamdoon, the Iraqi ambassador to the UN.
He said the UN needed to reconcile its demand to enter all military sites with its stated respect for "our [Iraq's] sovereignty ... " The US and Britain were jubilant at the rebuff to Iraq and Russia, which failed to win the full endorsement of France and China, the other permanent members of Security Council, which are sympathetic to Baghdad's case.
Russia had wanted the commission to certify that Iraq had dismantled its nuclear pogramme and long-range missiles. The US and Britain want it to identify countries which sold it nuclear technology before the invasion of Kuwait. That might delay the end of sanctions for years.
Better news for President Saddam Hussein was that Tariq Aziz, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, and Farouk al-Shara, Syria's Foreign Minister, in the highest-level talks between their countries for 17 years, agreed in Damascus to boost ties, which were cut when Syria supported Iran in the Iran-Iraq war, which started in 1980, and backed the Washington against Iraq in the Gulf war. Both countries countries feel threatened by the military pact between Turkey and Israel.
In Iraq, the ordinary work of the arms inspectors restarted without hindrance. Hussam Mohammed Amin, Head of the Iraqi monitoring directorate, said: "Eight monitoring teams of the [UN] Special Commission started this morning for the second day their usual activities and inspected 10 sites."
Between 70 and 80 inspectors flew back to Baghdad on Friday.
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