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Iraq Ignores Inspection Demands
Iraq said on Friday it was ready to receive U.N. weapons inspectors on Oct. 19 but ignored demands from U.N. arms officials on how to carry out unrestricted access to suspected weapons sites. An Iraqi letter to chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, pledged Baghdad's cooperation with the inspections and trusted they would be fair, professional and respect the "sovereignty, security and dignity of Iraq." But the letter from Iraqi Gen. Amir al-Saadi, a presidential adviser, avoided responding to a list of demands sent by the two U.N. officials in a letter they wrote on Oct. 8, according to an unofficial translation of Iraq's document. Having a certain amount of experience with bureaucracy, I know that if it ain't on paper, it didn't happen. So... The U.N. letter included such issues as the right of inspectors to conduct interviews and choose "the mode and location" for them as well as the possibility of flying U-2 spy planes over Iraq. Al-Saadi headed the Iraqi delegation of arms experts, which met Blix and ElBaradei in Vienna on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The two U.N. officials believed their Oct. 8 letter had set down a list of what both sides agreed in the Vienna meetings. Words are nothing but vapor until somebody signs the memo... But al-Saadi, while acknowledging the U.N. letter, said Iraq agreed to the contents of a press statement issued after Oct. 1 and a briefing Blix and ElBaradei had given to the 15-member Security Council in New York two days later. They'll wait until the guy are actually on site to argue over the interpretation of the details... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-10-11 |
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