UNITED NATIONS, January 22: United Nations (UN) chief weapons inspector Richard Butler has returned here empty handed after his talks with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad failed, setting the stage for a possible long confrontation.The talks made little headway on the primary mission which was to get access for the UN inspectors to Presidential palaces and other sites declared off limit by Baghdad on the ground of national sovereignty and security considerations.
But Iraq did score a point when it was agreed to have technical evaluation talks next month to assess the progress made in dismantling the Iraqi programmes of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological and chemical, and long range missiles.
The fact that experts from all permanent members of the Security Council and Germany will take part in the assessment dilutes the dominant part played so far by the American and British experts. Butler and his predecessor Rolf Ekeus had so far always sided with Americans.
Apparently, Iraq is
banking upon differences between experts which could give it propaganda advantage. Butler is scheduled to brief the Security Council tomorrow but the contents of his report are more or less unclear.
Butler rejected the Iraqi suggestion that the issue of access to the sites be postponed till after assessment. But this could happen in effect if the dispute persists, for assessment talks are only days away.
Observers say the 15-member Council could do little in such a short time except to issue another statement asking Iraq to open all sites for inspection.
The assessment talks, scheduled to be held in Baghdad, would provide next act of the long drawn drama and observers are keenly watching the outcome.A split outcome could prove to be an embarrassment for several of the Council members.
Meanwhile, in Washington, US President Bill Clinton said Iraq's obstruction of UN arms inspection was ``very serious'' and warned the US could act alone to keep suspected illegal Iraqi weapons programmes in check.
``I
don't have to explain to my grandchildren why we took a powder on what we think is a very serious biological and chemical weapons programme,'' Clinton said yesterday in an interview on Public Television.
He rejected a suggestion that Iraq did not take seriously the threat that the US still considered unilateral military force a viable option to break the deadlock.
``That's not true,'' Clinton said. ``This is a serious thing with me. This is a very serious thing.'' Clinton called on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to reconsider his position and noted that so far he had been ``far from trigger-happy'' in examining ways to bring Iraq back in compliance with UN resolutions.
``And I'm just very much hoping that we can reason with him (Saddam) before that happens. But if they really believe that there are no circumstances under which we would act alone, they are sadly mistaken,'' he said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
