DATE=9/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BRITAIN - IRAQ (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-266387
BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN
DATELINE=LONDON
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  A new United Nations inspection team is ready 
to go to Iraq to verify its compliance with U-N 
demands that it scrap its military arsenals.  A top 
British official told a news briefing (Monday) that 
Iraqi compliance could quickly end a decade of 
sanctions.  So far Iraq refuses to let the U-N team 
into the country.  Correspondent Laurie Kassman has 
more from London.

TEXT:  Britain's minister of state for foreign 
affairs, Peter Hain, says Saddam Hussein could speed 
up the process to suspend and ultimately end sanctions 
if he would allow the U-N inspection team, led by Hans 
Blix, into the country.

            /// HAIN ACT ///

Hans Blix's arms inspection team is now ready to go 
and do its work.  If Saddam Hussein agreed today to 
accept Blix's team in, sanctions could be suspended 
within six months.  Sanctions could be suspended by 
March of next year. The decision really lies with 
Baghdad.  Do they want the suffering of the Iraqi 
people to end or don't they?

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Hain dismisses critics who blame the West for 
Iraq's economic crisis and the deterioration of health 
conditions there.  He accuses the Iraqi government of 
blocking delivery of humanitarian supplies provided by 
a 20-billion-dollar U-N approved oil-for-food deal.

            /// HAIN ACT TWO ///

To the degree that suffering is continuing, it is 
often because Iraq itself is blocking the flow of 
humanitarian relief into the country and to the 
people, refusing to increase daily food rations while, 
for example, Saddam Hussein's regime imported ten 
thousand bottles of whiskey and 50 million cigarettes 
in one month.  Now where is the concern of the Iraqi 
regime for its own people?

            /// END ACT ///

The British minister also accuses Baghdad of failing 
to distribute about one-fourth of the medical supplies 
brought into the country under the U-N program.

Mr. Hain dismisses Iraqi allegations that U-S and 
British jets are targeting civilians as they patrol 
the northern and southern no-fly zones.  He says the 
West's policy of containment during the past decade 
has prevented Iraqi aggression against its neighbors 
or its Kurdish and Shiite minorities.

Britain is urging regional leaders to increase 
pressure on Saddam Hussein to comply with U-N demands. 
Mr. Hain says the ultimate goal is to bring a peaceful 
Iraq back into the international community. (Signed)

NEB/LMK/KL/PLM



12-Sep-2000 08:49 AM EDT (12-Sep-2000 1249 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.