ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:96071701.NNE

DATE:07/17/96

TITLE:17-07-96  SECURITY COUNCIL CHASTISES IRAQ FOR AGAIN BLOCKING INSPECTORS



TEXT:

(Says Iraq broke month-old agreement) (840)

By Judy Aita

USIA United Nations Correspondent



United Nations -- After hearing a report of new attempts by Iraq to

block U.N. weapons inspectors, the Security Council July 17 reminded

Iraq that it must allow the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM)

immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to all sites it wants

to inspect.



A "disappointed" Rolf Ekeus, UNSCOM chairman, went to the council

after Iraq stopped 33 weapons experts from traveling to an undisclosed

site on the outskirts of Baghdad. The confrontation, as well as

another incident involving a different group of U.N. weapons

inspectors, took place July 16 as UNSCOM undertook the initial test of

an agreement signed in June by Ekeus and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister

Tariq Aziz on UNSCOM access to sites throughout Iraq.



"An inspection team was again blocked on the road to carry out an

inspection -- not at the site, but on its way to a site. After delays

and protestations from our side, Iraq made the firm statement that

they would not allow us to pass through that road, which was the only

one, as we understood it, to the site," Ekeus told journalists after

his private meeting with the Security Council.



"So we had to give up that inspection," Ekeus said.



"I am disappointed. The actions are not in conformity with either the

letter or the spirit of that agreement, which I hoped would open a new

chapter in our operations," the UNSCOM chairman said.



After a series of similar standoffs earlier this year, Iraq and the

U.N. signed an agreement June 22 saying that Iraq would allow UNSCOM

weapons inspectors "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access

to all sites which the Commission or the IAEA (International Atomic

Energy Commission) may wish to inspect."



Ekeus said that the 33-member team headed by chief inspector Nikita

Smidovich of Russia was stopped in an area not far from Iraq's

international airport. It was headed to an undisclosed site to look

for documents or remnants of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons

programs and missiles.



"We are in agreement with Iraq that they acquired these items ... but

Iraq then says they destroyed them unilaterally and secretly in 1991

after the war. We have no proof of such destruction and we want to see

either the documents or the materials. That is the problem now," Ekeus

said.



Iraqi officials refused to let the team proceed saying the road went

through "what they called 'the presidential area,'" he said.



"It was a road. It didn't look presidential to our people, but

secondly of course, there are no exceptions from inspections in Iraq,"

Ekeus said.



"We don't suspect that the president is hiding something in his own

facilities. I wouldn't hide chemical weapons in my basement in the

house," he said.



U.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm called Iraq's latest blockade "a clear

violation of the agreement that has been reached and ... just

continued evidence that the Iraqis, while they may claim one thing, in

effect are acting to block the inspectors from undertaking the kind of

activities that they have to do if there is ever going to be any

resolution of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program."



Gnehm said that the council will continue to watch the situation and

discuss "what exactly should be done."



British Ambassador Sir John Weston said that "this is the first test

after that agreement was reached and Iraq has once again failed the

test."



"We are really fed up with being told one thing only to find the

Iraqis are doing another. Iraq is not taking the Security Council and

the international community seriously," Sir John said.



"It is going to have, I'm afraid, serious repercussions to the

detriment of Iraq because we will not reach the point where sanctions

can be lifted if this kind of non-cooperation goes on. It will simply

stop this program dead in its tracks," the British ambassador said.



Economic sanctions against Iraq, especially the oil embargo, will not

be lifted until UNSCOM has certified to the council that Iraq's banned

chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons and ballistic missile

programs have been destroyed. The inspections do not have any impact

on the special plan worked out with the council to sell $2,000 million

of oil every six months in order to buy food, medicine and other

humanitarian supplies for Iraqi civilians.



In a statement to the press, Council President Alain Dejammet said

that the members of the council "expressed their disappointment and

preoccupation about the difficulties and obstacles" Iraq has placed

before the UNSCOM inspectors.



"They unanimously recalled that Iraq must fully comply with the

resolutions of the Security Council and abide by the commitments

undertaken and conclusions reached" June 22 at the end of Ekeus'

mission to Baghdad, Dejammet said, adding that Ekeus and UNSCOM have

the council's "full support."



Dejammet will also call in Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon.

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