DATE=8/23/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ / U-N (L) (CQ)
NUMBER=2-265784
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:


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graph of text by taking out reference to Venezuelan 
President Hugo Chavez and eliminate graphs nine and 10 
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INTRO:  Iraq has rejected a new United Nations team 
created to monitor Iraqi weapons programs and says it 
will not be allowed to enter the country, even if it 
means continued international sanctions.  V-O-A's 
Scott Bobb reports from our Middle East bureau in 
Cairo that the development comes amid feelings in Iraq 
that international sanctions against it are weakening.


TEXT:  Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, told 
reporters in Baghdad (Wednesday) the government does 
not recognize the United Nations resolution that 
created the new weapons monitoring commission.  As a 
result, he said, the country will not receive any 
person related to it.

Mr. Aziz said Iraq is ready to face all challenges in 
order to defend its sovereignty and rights.

The Iraqi official was reacting to the announcement 
earlier this week that the head of the new commission, 
former Swedish diplomat Hans Blix, has recruited a 
core group of more than 40 inspectors to go to Baghdad 
to resume weapons inspections.

The inspections were begun after the Gulf War and were 
meant to prevent Iraq from building weapons of mass 
destruction.

The commission was created last December after its 
predecessor, UNSCOM, came under criticism by some U-N 
Security Council members and Iraq vowed never to allow 
it back into the country.  UNSCOM inspectors left 
Baghdad two years ago charging Iraq was not 
cooperating with the weapons inspections.  This led to 
four nights of intensive bombing by U-S and British 
planes.

Since then, Iraq has adopted a defiant attitude toward 
the inspections and has mounted a diplomatic offensive 
aimed at weakening international sanctions that have 
crippled its economy.

Many groups around the world oppose the sanctions, 
saying they punish the Iraqi people and not the Iraqi 
regime.  This week, Russia complained to the United 
Nations that the sanctions had deprived it of 30-
billion dollars worth of trade and prevented Iraq from 
repaying seven-billion dollars of debt.

A ban on air travel to Iraq has also been broken in 
the past week.  The Arab Lawyers Union announced 
Wednesday it intends to break the ban by flying a 
delegation to Baghdad.

The Union's secretary-general, Saber Amar, told V-O-A 
that members made the decision during a meeting in 
Algeria last May.

            /// AMAR ACT IN ARABIC FADE UNDER ///

Mr. Amar said the union has asked airlines in Algeria 
and Jordan to provide a plane.  He says there are 
difficulties because airlines are reluctant to take 
the risk.

Mr. Amar said the Lawyers Union wants to make the trip 
to show its opposition to the sanctions.  He said the 
lawyers also want to question the authorities in 
Baghdad about the fate of hundreds of missing Kuwaiti 
prisoners of war.   (Signed)

NEB/SB/GE/JP




23-Aug-2000 11:37 AM LOC (23-Aug-2000 1537 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.