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Iraq I: Baghdad Officials Make Concessions to U.N. Inspectors In a letter to U.N. officials delivered this morning, Iraq agreed to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to conduct surveillance flights using U.S. U-2 aircraft. The issue had been a major point of contention when the top U.N. inspectors visited Baghdad Saturday and Sunday. “The inspectors are now free to use the American U-2s as well as French and Russian planes,” said Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Mohamed al-Douri. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said today that Iraq had agreed to greater cooperation in several other areas as well. “We made progress on all the areas we asked for,” he said (see GSN, Feb. 7; Dafna Linzer, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Feb. 10). Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix cautiously concurred with that assessment yesterday. “I hope I have seen in those days the beginning of taking these remaining disarmament issues more seriously,” Blix said (Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 10). In addition, al-Douri said Iraq would pass legislation next week to criminalize WMD production and other activities (Linzer, Associated Press). During the weekend meetings, Iraqi officials provided documents that included information on Iraq’s efforts to develop anthrax, nerve gas and ballistic missiles, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The documents still needed to be examined further to determine their value, Blix said, adding that they did not appear to contain new information (Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 10). “This time they presented some papers to us in which they focused upon new issues,” Blix said. “Not new evidence really as far as I can see, but they have nevertheless focused on real open issues and that is welcome,” he added (Reuters/MSNBC.com, Feb. 10). Iraq also supplemented a list of its nuclear scientists, said Iraqi presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi, who led the Iraqi delegation (Philadelphia Inquirer). One important development over the weekend was Iraq’s acknowledgement that there were outstanding disarmament issues, a senior U.N. official said. “They finally acknowledged there were issues that needed to be resolved,” the official said. If Iraq continued to increase its cooperation with inspectors, then disarmament could still be accomplished peacefully, ElBaradei said. “The ball is very much in Iraq’s court,” ElBaradei said. “If we see full cooperation ... on all the issues, then I believe we will be given time we need. As long as we’re registering good progress, I think the Security Council will continue to support the inspection process,” he added (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, Feb. 10). U.S. Response U.S. officials have openly criticized Iraq’s new efforts to cooperate with inspectors, and have said that time is running out for Iraq to disarm, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “The Iraqis are playing a game here,” U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said. “They do this every time they feel a little bit of pressure. What they’re trying to do is create a little bit of sense that they’re moving forward so they can release the pressure on themselves. But they have one thing to do and one thing only, and that is to disarm,” she added (Philadelphia Inquirer). If Iraq is still not fully cooperating with inspectors by a Security Council briefing scheduled for Friday, then U.S. President George W. Bush will immediately call for a U.N. resolution authorizing military action, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday. If Blix and ElBaradei report Feb. 14 that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is still not cooperating, “then the Security Council will have to sit in session immediately and determine what should happen next,” Powell said on NBC’s Meet the Press. The council would then have to “start considering a resolution that says Iraq is in material breach and it is time for serious consequences to follow,” he added (Steven Weisman, New York Times, Feb. 10). Bush said yesterday that the United Nations has reached a “moment of truth” in the crisis with Iraq and that the international body’s actions now could determine its future relevance. “You’ll see us over the next short period of time working with friends and allies and the United Nations to bring that body along,” Bush told a gathering of Republican lawmakers at a retreat in West Virginia. “And it’s a moment of truth for the United Nations. The United Nations gets to decide shortly whether or not it is going to be relevant in terms of keeping the peace, whether or not its words mean anything,” he added (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, Feb. 10). France, Germany Propose Alternative Meanwhile, France and Germany have proposed an alternative to the U.S. calls for action against Iraq. Their plan would triple the number of inspectors operating within the country, send U.N. peacekeepers to Iraq and convert the entire country into a no-fly zone, according to the Washington Times (see GSN, Feb. 4). Both countries plan to present their proposal to the Security Council Friday after Blix and ElBaradei give their briefing, the Times reported (Ellen Sorokin, Washington Times, Feb. 10). Germany, which has long resisted military action against Iraq, “could well take” part in the peacekeeping force envisioned in the plan, said German Defense Minister Peter Struck. Already, Russia and Belgium have offered support for the plan, according to BBC News. “I have no doubt that Russia will adhere to it,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said yesterday, referring to the Franco-German plan (BBC News, Feb. 9). Senior U.S. officials, however, have criticized the Franco-German plan, according to the Washington Times. Powell said the plan “misses the point.” “It’s the wrong issue," Powell said on Meet the Press. “The issue is not more inspectors. The issue is compliance on the part of Saddam Hussein. This idea of more inspectors or a no-fly zone or whatever else may be in this proposal that is being developed, is a diversion, not a solution,” he added. If the United Nations chose to adopt the Franco-German plan, such a decision could lead to the United States launching an attack on Iraq without U.N. support, Powell said. “If the U.N. does not face up to its responsibilities as clearly laid out in Resolution 1441, then it would be necessary for the United States to act with a willing coalition,” Powell said, referring to the resolution that established the current inspections regime (Sorokin, Washington Times). NATO France, Germany and Belgium earlier today blocked efforts by other NATO nations to enhance Turkey’s defenses in the event of a war with Iraq, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Jan. 30). France exercised its veto with only an hour to go before the deadline. Representatives from the three countries said the planning was unnecessary because there was still a chance that a peaceful solution could be found to the Iraq crisis. “It [the planning] would signify that we have already entered into the logic of war, that ... any chance, any initiative to still resolve the conflict in a peaceful way was gone,” Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said. Turkey has now requested emergency consultations under NATO’s mutual defense treaty — the first time in the alliance’s history that a nation has done so. Turkey is expected to ask for the defense planning to begin, and diplomats have said they expected the three countries to end their opposition. “What is important, is that we arrive at a consensus and I’m confident we will,” said NATO Secretary General George Robertson. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld criticized the veto. “Shameful, for me it’s truly shameful,” Rumsfeld said in an interview published yesterday in the Italian newspaper La Republica. “Turkey is an ally. An ally that is risking everything ... How can you refuse it help?” he added (Paul Ames, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Feb. 10). Exile The United States and the United Kingdom are developing a proposal to offer Hussein 48 hours to voluntarily go into exile or risk an attack, which would be included as a section of any second U.N. resolution, according to the London Sunday Telegraph (see GSN, Jan. 31). The two-day deadline is seen as enough time for Arab diplomats to make a last attempt to convince Hussein to step down or for him to be overthrown in a coup, U.S. officials said. British Foreign Office officials have confirmed that Saudi Arabia has offered to provide a haven for Hussein if he chose to go into exile, according to the Sunday Telegraph (Coman/Brown, London Sunday Telegraph, Feb. 9). Biological Weapons Program Justified, Dr. Germ Says Iraq was justified in producing biological agents in the 1980s and the 1990s to serve as a deterrent, Rihab Taha, a former top Iraqi biological weapons scientist who has been dubbed “Dr. Germ” by the media, said yesterday. “We never wanted to cause harm or damage to anybody,” Taha said in an interview with the BBC’s Panorama program. “Iraq has been threatened by different enemies and we are in an area that suffers from regional conflict. I think it is our right to have something to defend ourselves and to have something as a deterrent,” she added. Taha said she had no plans to submit to a private interview with U.N. inspectors, saying it was her “right” to conduct such an interview with Iraqi officials present. “I do not trust them from the last inspections,” Taha said. “I think it is better for me and for them and for everybody to have witnesses because I think it is our right,” she added (Associated Press/MSNBC.com, Feb. 9). Iraq Counters Powell’s Missile Test Stand Claims Iraqi officials Friday took reporters to the al-Rafah plant, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, in an attempt to counter Powell’s claims that a missile test stand there was designed to test missiles with ranges beyond U.N. limits (see GSN, Feb. 6). In his recent presentation to the Security Council, Powell said the al-Rafah test stand, which is larger than previous test stands, is meant “for long-range missiles that can fly 1,200 kilometers.” The stand is larger, however, because it is meant to test-fire missiles in a horizontal position, rather than vertically as with the old stand, said Ali Jassim, director of the al-Rafah plant. The new configuration is safer, he added. “By constructing this facility, we are taking precautions to keep people from getting burnt,” Jassim said. Jassim also defended the presence of an aluminum roof over the test stand. Powell had alleged that the roof was meant to block satellites from taking images of the stand. The roof is actually meant to protect the stand from “rain and dust,” Jassim said (Ian Fisher, New York Times, Feb. 8). Inspections U.N inspectors Friday conducted private interviews with three Iraqi WMD scientists — two on nuclear and biological weapons and one scientist involved with Iraq’s nuclear program, according to the New York Times. So far, inspectors have been able to talk to four Iraqi scientists without the presence of government minders (Ian Fisher, New York Times, Feb. 9). On Saturday, inspectors visited at least six suspect Iraqi sites, according to an IAEA press release. Chemical experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission inspected the al-Rasheed Water Project in Baghdad. UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the al-Mutassim Training Institute in northwestern Baghdad. UNMOVIC biological inspectors visited the Djerf al-Naddaf facility. Inspectors based in the northern city of Mosul visited the Mosul Technical Institute. IAEA inspectors conducted a motorized radiation survey in the Baghdad area, according to the agency press release. A second IAEA team deployed two mobile air-sampling units at two locations in Baghdad (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Feb. 8). For further information, see:
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