BAGHDAD, Sept 21: Iraq said on Saturday it would not accept any new conditions on the activities of UN arms inspectors, only six days after agreeing under threat of a US-led strike to their unconditional return.
A government spokesman said Baghdad rules out additional conditions following “press reports that US officials are trying to get the Security Council to issue new, bad resolutions.”
“Iraq will not deal with any new resolution that would run counter to what was agreed upon with the UN secretary general,” he said, speaking after President Saddam Hussein chaired a leadership meeting.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri gave Secretary General Kofi Annan a letter saying Iraq would allow the unconditional return of UN arms inspectors after a hiatus of nearly four years. The spokesman, quoted by the official INA news agency, did not spell out on Saturday what Iraq considered had been agreed with the UN chief.
But in his letter, Sabri noted that Annan had told the General Assembly the return of the inspectors should be “the indispensable first step” towards “a comprehensive solution that includes the lifting of the sanctions imposed on Iraq” following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
US President George W. Bush is pressing the Security Council to pass a tough new resolution, to include consequences Iraq would face if it does fully disarm.
Chief arms inspector Hans Blix hopes to send an advance team of UN inspectors to Iraq on October 15. The Iraqi statement came as Moscow and Washington moved closer in dealing with the crisis after Bush urged Russia to back tougher action against Baghdad.
Bush spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday before meeting Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov at the White House.
Putin has the support of other key nations worried about US threats of unilateral military action against Saddam without UN backing. Though Moscow did not subscribe to Washington’s hardline, the two former Cold War foes did inch closer, the Russian ministers hinted.
Ivanov praised Bush for “defending the US stance with openness and candour,” ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
The two ministers were convinced that Bush “preferred multilateral actions using the UN framework” to any other course, a reassurance very important for Moscow, he said. He stressed the importance of unity, which had “forced Baghdad to quickly and unconditionally agree to allow the UN inspectors to return.”
Russia might soften its vehement opposition to tougher pressure on Iraq, the defence minister suggested, admitting that the resumption of inspections was no bar to a new Security Council resolution “harsher than any previous one.”—AFP/Reuters
