BAGHDAD, February 25: Chief UN weapons inspector Richard Butler is the big loser from the accord worked out with Iraq by UN secretary general Kofi Annan, diplomats here have said.The accord which Annan presented to the UN Security Council yesterday takes away from butler the responsibility for reporting on inspections of presidential sites, the diplomats noted.
Under the draft, Butler would have to pass on the finding of the special group being set up for inspections of presidential palaces to Annan for submission to the Security Council.
Previously the head of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) on Iraq's disarmament delivered all his reports directly to the Security Council.Butler is still due to arrive here next Monday ``unless he has changed his plans,'' Annan said yesterday.
``Tariq Aziz told me we are waiting for him, be reassured, we will work with him,'' Annan said.
But diplomats here suggested the controversial UN weapons chief who earned the label `mad dog' from Baghdad for his outspokencomments about alleged Iraqi concealment of biological weapons should delay his return.
``March two is too soon,'' said one diplomat recalling that Butler had outraged the whole Arab world by saying that Baghdad retained the ability to ``take out'' Tel Aviv. ``He has been reprimanded by the secretary-general and at the Security Council,'' said another. ``He is supposed not to make political statements, he is a technical man,'' he said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
