Saddam Appeals to UN as Inspectors Prepare Return

Yahoo ^ | 9/20/02 | Evelyn Leopold

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As U.N. weapons inspectors disclosed plans to go to Iraq next month, President Saddam Hussein appealed to the United Nations ( news - web sites) to stop the Bush administration from attacking his country.

In a letter read by his foreign minister to the 190-member U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, Saddam attempted to counter U.S. war plans and denied he had any banned weapons.

"I hereby declare before you that Iraq is clear of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons," he said in the message read by Naji Sabri only days after Baghdad agreed to readmit the arms inspectors without conditions.

He accused the United States of wanting to destroy Iraq in order to control the oil-based economy of the Middle East and hinted at limits to where the inspectors could go, saying Iraq's rights, sovereignty and security had to be respected.

"We have accepted the return of inspection teams to Iraq, taking into consideration the arrangements that should safeguard these principles," he said.

The statement immediately raised questions about a 1998 agreement on Saddam's palace compounds that included diplomats accompanying the inspectors.

The pact was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council but may be changed. The Bush administration is seeking Security Council support for a resolution authorizing military action against Baghdad if it blocks any access for the U.N. arms experts.

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix acknowledged that the agreement on the palaces was still valid unless the council decided otherwise.

But he told reporters after briefing the council that interpretations of Saddam's statement differed.

"I think that we will have our view on what it means and we will see to it that we are in line with what the Security Council says."

The inspectors went to Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War ( news - web sites) that drove Baghdad's troops from Kuwait. They were withdrawn in December 1998, before a U.S.-British bombing blitz designed to punish Iraq for its alleged failure to cooperate with them.

INSPECTIONS COULD COME SOON

Blix also revealed a timetable that would send an advance party to Iraq on Oct. 15 followed by preliminary inspections of the skeleton team.

"We will select some sites that we think are interesting to go to in the early phases," he said.

Washington wants to condense the timeline that was set up in a 1999 council resolution. This calls for a 60-day period to draw up a work program and identify "key remaining tasks" on Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction programs before intrusive inspections begin.

But before going to Baghdad, Blix meets with Iraqi arms experts in Vienna for two days, beginning Sept. 30 to work out logistics, such as offices, transport, communications, accommodations, escorts and landing sites for aircraft as well as open new offices in Basra and Mosul.

The Vienna meeting could become the first test of Iraq's cooperation that Blix will encounter.

Meanwhile, the United States is still facing an uphill battle to get agreement from the 15-member Security Council on a resolution but has vowed to act unilaterally, if necessary.

With the exception of Russia, most council members agree that a new measure is needed to put pressure on Iraq but are wary of endorsing military action in the volatile region.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told Europe 1 radio on Thursday that "a resolution could be useful to take note of the Iraqis' acceptance of the (inspectors') return and to set out the practical arrangements that will make this possible."

Unable to get direct authorization to use military force, the United States is considering a resolution that would declare Iraq in "material breach" of U.N. mandates.

Evoking "material breach," in U.S. eyes, would give it legal grounds for an attack. But such a maneuver, while questionable under the U.N. Charter, would allow waverers to claim they never agreed to a military strike, diplomats said.