United Nations weapons inspectors will return to Iraq
tomorrow and resume searching for Saddam Hussein's
weapons of destruction, a UN official said yesterday. The 15-nation Security Council gave them the green light after Iraq
agreed to resume cooperation with the inspectors unconditionally,
said Richard Butler, the chairman of the UN Special Commission
in charge of Iraqi disarmament — UNSCOM.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called the end of the Iraq crisis
a victory for diplomacy and said he hopes there are no future
stand-offs.
"I sincerely hope that there will not be a next
time," Annan said. "I'm not sure that if there is
a next time we would even have time for
further diplomatic initiatives and appeals."
The Security Council decision came a day
after Baghdad blinked in the face of a
threatened massive U.S. air attack and agreed
to cooperate with the weapons inspectors.
"I told the Council that the minute the 'go'
order is given, we could be back at work in
24 hours, and that remains the case," Butler
said.
The inspectors have been waiting for word in Bahrain, where they
were evacuated shortly before the crisis.
But time may be running out for UNSCOM, which was charged
April 18, 1991, to find and destroy Iraq's chemical and biological
weapons after Saddam's soldiers were routed during the Gulf
War.
There is growing support to end nearly eight years of economic
sanctions, which have crippled Iraq, and curtail the inspections.
And although UNSCOM has destroyed billions of dollars worth
of weapons, including an entire biological weapons plant, Saddam
is believed to have stockpiled nerve gas and other deadly agents at
secret locations around Iraq.
Butler, an Australian, was picked to head the inspection team. But
the 100-plus inspectors are drawn from the U.S., Russia, Britain,
Poland, Nigeria and a dozen other countries. The team includes
weapons specialists, biologists, communications experts and
chopper pilots.
The UN resolution creating UNSCOM was supposed to
guarantee the inspectors "unrestricted freedom of movement
without advance notice within Iraq." But Saddam has repeatedly
set up roadblocks that have twice nearly led to U.S. air attacks.
-- Corky Siemaszko - 11/16/98