Iraq rejects resumption of UN weapons inspections

Iraq rejects resumption of UN weapons inspections

BAGHDAD (AFP): Iraq on Saturday rejected the latest UN plans
to resume weapons inspections in the country, saying a proposal
for the new arms body UNMOVIC "means nothing to us."

Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Baghdad had given no
indication it would cooperate with inspections or accept
December's Security Council resolution 1284 offering a renewable
suspension of sanctions in exchange for cooperation.

"What has been decided by the Security Council concerning the
commission that has been formed means nothing to us," he told
reporters following the council's unanimous approval Thursday for
the UNMOVIC blueprint.

"I have never hinted that Iraq will cooperate with this
resolution. I said clearly in my speech this morning that
resolution 1284 is a ruse, is unjust and we cannot accept it,"
Aziz told reporters after a talk he gave to Iraqi expatriates.

Aziz, addressing the expatriates earlier, said: "This attempt
by the United States and Britain to impose on Iraq a new and
iniquitous resolution will never succeed, despite their attempts
to falsify the truth and hide their acts which contravene
international law and human rights."

The Security Council approved plans for the UN Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) to replace the
UN Special Commission for Disarmament in Iraq (UNSCOM), which
left Baghdad in December 1998.

UNSCOM, which left Baghdad on the eve of US-British air
strikes, was accused by Baghdad of spying on behalf of the United
States and Israel.

Aziz also repeated a call for the total lifting of sanctions
imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait that led to the
Gulf War.

"Any resolution that does not satisfy Iraq by lifting the
embargo and condemning aggression carries no value," the veteran
diplomat said.

"The leaders of the United States and Britain are aggressors
who are attacking your country and killing its children with
premeditation, urged on by imperialist and Zionist hatred," he
told the expatriates.

Hans Blix, UNMOVIC's chief disarmament inspector and former
head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, presented the
Security Council with procedures to ensure the independence of
the new commission's members and avoid accusations of espionage
like those Iraq leveled against UNSCOM.

The plan leaves UNMOVIC's door open to former UNSCOM members.

The Blix plan plays up the importance of confidentiality and
stresses the need to carry out inspections "in a correct,
technically competent and thorough manner."