DATE=9/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=UN-ALBRIGHT / IRAQ (L)
NUMBER=2-266405
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is again 
blaming Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for keeping his 
country under United Nations economic sanctions, 
telling reporters (Tuesday) the Iraqi leader has the 
key to lift sanctions when ever he wants.  V-O-A's 
Nick Simeone reports from the United Nations that 
unlike in years past, Washington is making no mention 
of military force if Baghdad continues to hold out.


TEXT:  A new, reconstituted United Nations team of 
weapons inspectors led by Swedish diplomat Hans Blix 
is ready to return to Iraq and resume the search for 
Baghdad's suspected weapons of mass destruction.  But 
they're not likely to get there.

For the better part [EDS: most] of a decade, Baghdad 
and the United Nations have been in a tug of war, with 
Iraq demanding that sanctions be lifted while 
Washington and a diminishing number of its allies 
insisting that Iraq first be declared free of banned 
weapons.

With U-N efforts to resolve the Iraqi matter seemingly 
going nowhere, Secretary of State Albright chose what 
will likely be her last formal visit to the United 
Nations not to undermine the U-N approach to Iraq with 
new threats of military force.   She spoke to 
reporters outside the General Assembly.

            /// ALBRIGHT ACT ///

      We have made clear so many times Saddam Hussein 
      is the one that can pick up the key to let 
      himself out of the sanctions box and the key is 
      allowing Hans Blix's new UNMOVIC [EDS: U-N 
      weapons inspection team] to go in and do its 
      job.   He is the one who is victimizing his own 
      people.

            /// END ACT ///

In recent months, Iraq has been earning billions of 
dollars selling unlimited amounts of oil at a time 
when crude prices are reaching 10-year highs.  In 
light of that, Secretary Albright blamed any 
humanitarian crisis due to U-N sanctions squarely on 
Baghdad.

But in a sign that Iraq may be less likely to 
cooperate with the United Nations than ever before, 
Secretary General Kofi Annan has told the Security 
Council Baghdad is refusing even to allow an 
independent team of experts into the country to take a 
fresh look at the humanitarian situation.   (SIGNED)

NEB/NJS/JP




12-Sep-2000 13:42 PM LOC (12-Sep-2000 1742 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.