Posted on 09/21/2002 9:22:51 AM PDT by tomahawk
Iraq begins imposing conditions on "unconditional return of UN inspectors
Iraq said 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 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 hard line, 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 defense minister suggested, admitting that the resumption of inspections was no bar to a new Security Council resolution "harsher than any previous one."
Powell also met the ministers.
"I think they are open to hear our arguments and we're open to hear their arguments, and so the split that has been much spoken about earlier this week I don't think is quite the split that people have portrayed," he said.
His Russian counterpart indignantly dismissed reports of a cooling in Russian-US relations.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saddam was determined to flout UN authority, and accused Iraq of a "blatant untruth" in declaring it did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq has "reinforced the need for the UN Security Council to insist on intrusive inspections with an urgent timetable," Straw said.
France and China, the two other Security Council permanent members, have also stated their intentions.
China's Premier Zhu Rongji said Beijing was not prepared to see the United States launch military action without Security Council endorsement.
And in Paris, a presidential spokeswoman said a new UN resolution was not indispensable, but could be a useful means of pressuring Iraq.
Meanwhile, Germany, normally one of Washington's main allies in Europe, came under US fire just ahead of Sunday's federal elections.
US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said US-German relations were under strain, due in part to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's criticism of Bush's policy on Iraq.
She also lashed German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin's reported comments comparing Bush's foreign policy to Adolf Hitler's.
Germany has ruled out taking part in a strike on Iraq even if there were a UN mandate for it.
As the Iraqi media continued to fulminate against Bush, dubbed a "raging bull" by one paper Saturday, the commander of US troops in the Gulf said they were "prepared" for a possible military offensive against Iraq, though Bush had still not made a decision to go to war.
"We are prepared to do whatever we are asked to do," General Tommy Franks told reporters in Kuwait.
What other side deals did our buddy agree to.....
Kofi goes...
Now don't get me wrong -- I have no doubt that the likes of France and Germany will appease anything, right up to Sadaam using a nuke on someone, they are that craven and rotten to the core, but France and Germany won't be able to save him. Note to Sadaam: You should've found allies that could actually project some power, whereas France and Germany have difficulty projecting power for even one block around their own Parliament buidlings.
The fun part will be Kofi trying to present himself as "Secretary General" once Sadaam is rotting in his grave.
We won't have seen the like since Charlie Chaplin's "Little General".
Yeah right, like this took any of us by surprise.
Generals say stuff like this but it's meaningless apple-polishing. Custer probably said the same thing.
The press isists on repeating this fallacy. Unless Saddam meant that while their "return" is unconditional, what they do while in Iraq IS contitional. aking a page from Clinton's playbook, no doubt.
In fact, Iraq's offer was NEVER unconditional. Now they're trying to spin the case that any requests by the US are "new conditions". But the original UN mandate was for unconditional inspections, the details of which were to be worked out by the UN.
Have they missed the point that we don't NEED their help. And we prefer that they take a seat on the bench and shut the hell up.
Virgins my eye. 72 Hanan Ashwaris is more like it };-)
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