UNITED NATIONS/BAGHDAD, 14 November 2002 — Iraq wrote to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday saying it accepted the new Security Council resolution demanding its disarmament and that it would welcome UN weapons inspectors on schedule. "Iraq accepts the resolution, unreservedly, without conditions," Baghdad’s ambassador to the United Nations, Muhammad Al-Douri told reporters, although that was not explicit in the letter, signed by Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.
Sabri also raised some doubt by saying he would write another letter to Annan to explain why Iraq regarded provisions of Resolution 1441 as "contrary to international law," the UN Charter and established fact. The crucial words, "We hereby inform you that we will deal with Resolution 1441, despite its bad contents," came in the middle of a nine-page tirade, larded with religious quotations and insults against US President George W. Bush.
An English translation of the letter, provided by the Iraqi mission to the UN, was distributed to members of the Security Council and made available to reporters. "Despite the hysterical language, none of this amounts to rejection" of the new arms inspection regime, a Council diplomat said.
But he added: "We’re going to have to look quite carefully at the Arabic as well as the English. Where they talk about ‘dealing with the resolution’, what does that mean? It might be important what the Arabic word is there."
The diplomat said the paragraph in which Sabri said he would send Annan another letter also raised a question. "It is hard to read that," he said, but he noted that Sabri had said the new letter would "state our observations" and that observations were not the same as conditions.
Resolution 1441, adopted unanimously by the Security Council on Friday, gave the Iraqi government seven days to accept its terms. Parliament in Baghdad voted unanimously on Tuesday to reject the resolution, but left the last word to President Saddam Hussein.
The diplomat noted that Resolution 1441 was adopted unanimously under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which makes it legally binding upon Iraq and gives the council the authority to use military action to enforce it. "The inspectors will be going back," he said. "What we really need is full compliance on the ground, that will be the real test. This does not show a particularly healthy attitude," he added.
He said the Council had not yet decided whether it would reply to the letter. Resolution 1441 also gave Iraq 30 days to make a full and accurate declaration of its weapons of mass destruction, but Sabri’s letter did not refer to this requirement.
Bush said that the world expects Iraq to disarm "for the sake of peace," giving a muted reply to Baghdad’s pledge to comply with a UN disarmament resolution. "We the world, expects (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein to disarm for the sake of peace," Bush told reporters as he met with Annan at the White House.
The White House earlier gave a skeptical welcome to Iraq’s acceptance of the resolution, emphasizing its "zero-tolerance" policy toward any non-compliance. "We’ve heard this before from Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime. Now we need to see it by Saddam Hussein’s actions," spokesman Scott McClellan said.
As Bush prepared to discuss Iraq with Annan in Washington, McClellan made clear Baghdad had many other obligations beyond meeting the Friday deadline for saying it would comply. "Iraq must provide a full accounting of all weapons of mass destruction, programs, materials and delivery systems within 30 days," he said. "Iraq also must allow free unimpeded, unconditional, immediate access for weapons inspectors anywhere, any time to anyone."
UN arms experts will be heading to Iraq on Monday to reopen their offices and prepare for inspections of suspected weapons sites, a spokeswoman said in Vienna yesterday. The advance team of 24 experts headed by UN chief arms inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency Secretary-General Muhammad El-Baradei will set up their headquarters, with actual inspections expected to begin "a week or ten days after that," said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. (The Independent)
