Annan to mediate Iraq - UN dispute as military option is hinted at
Iraq-UN, Politics, 8/20/1998

The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday said the UN chief is ready now to discuss with the UN Security Council the possibility of his personal intervention in the dispute pertaining to the activities of the UN inspection team in Iraq.

The spokesman added that Annan, who is currently on vacation in Mali is satisfied with the position recently taken by the UN Security Council, but he did not rule out the council reconsidering use of the military option. The spokesman added, "At the moment concentration is on the diplomatic side."

Meantime, the US representative at the UN, Bill Richardson, asked Annan to interfere personally saying: "We think the matter needs the UN Secretary to use once again his skills and diplomacy to deal with this problem."

Annan mediated the accord reached in Baghdad last February and led to settling the crisis that erupted between Iraq and the UN concerning inspection operations.

Meanwhile, Annan's UN envoy Prakash Shah had announced that Iraq is committed to its decision to suspend cooperation with UNSCOM inspectors, adding that Iraq wants to continue a dialogue with the UN in order to lift the sanctions.

Shah added that relations between Iraq and the UN did not reach the state of crisis, despite his failure to convince Iraqi officials to permit the resumption of inspection operations. He added that he still hopes to find a solution that would allow for resumption of inspection operations, hoping that the UN Security Council and Iraq will be able to do that.

Shah described the talks he held with Iraqi Deputy Premier Tareq Aziz as friendly. He expressed his readiness to come back to Iraq to hold more talks with Iraqi officials. He said he will head for New York to brief Annan on his talks with Aziz.

On last Thursday Shah arrived in Baghdad carrying a message from Annan to Aziz on the recent crisis concerning inspection operations in Iraq.

Meanwhile, officials from Iraq and the UN stressed that Iraq has not achieved its set objectives for revenues in the recent stage of the oil-for-food program signed with the UN.

The officials attributed that to the decline in oil price and Baghdad's inability to pump more production from its oil industry ailing infrastructure. Iraq, on the other hand, accuses the US and Britain of delaying the decision of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee to approve the importation of spare parts needed for maintaining its oil industry firms.

For months the UN had approved the importation of spare parts valued at US $300 million. But so far only seven contracts have been approved out of 41 contracts. The UN said it will issue a statement later on accelerating the process of approving the contracts.

Previous Stories:
  Iraq: Butler is an agent of US policy   (8/15/1998)
  Iraq expects division in its favor inside UN   (8/14/1998)
  US Pentagon: Iraqi problem is UN issue   (8/13/1998)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search