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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 April 1999 Issue No. 423 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 April 1999 Issue No. 423
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Interview Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Iraqi inspections
A 20-MEMBER panel on Iraqi arms has concluded that intrusive inspections were needed under a restructured UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) to account for Baghdad's remaining weapons of mass destruction.But the panel's report, submitted to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday, proposed no inducement for Iraq to allow any UN weapons inspectors back in the country. The inspectors left before the US and Britain started their bombing raids against Iraq in mid-December.
The report, requested by the Security Council, is an attempt to provide a basis for formulating a policy towards Iraq that the Council's 15 members could accept. The panel included arms experts and government officials. It recommended that the disarmament procedures carried out in the past could be combined with a monitoring system, which would be "more intrusive than the one so far practiced."
But the report also opens the door for countries sympathetic to Iraq, such as Russia, France and China, to move against UNSCOM, currently in charge of Iraqi disarmament, which
Couched in opaque diplomatic language, the report said data on Iraq's dangerous weapons is largely, but not totally, complete, thereby allowing the US and Britain to maintain stringent UN sanctions.
Marking the start of the Muslim Eid Al-Adha, an Iraqi family mourns their deceased relative at a graveyard in Baghdad
(photo: AFP)
they want abolished or radically changed.
It says UNSCOM could possibly include technical experts as well as UN secretariat delegates, diplomats and representatives from the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
In an apparent reference to alleged espionage and spying activities by the US, the panel said inspections "should not be used for purposes other than the ones set forth" by the Council. Scott Ritter, a former UN inspector, has charged that Washington used UNSCOM to obtain information about how Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could be removed. Recent reports indicate that the US depended heavily in its strike against Iraq in December on intelligence information collected by CIA agents who used UNSCOM as a cover.
