US and UN at odds as Iraq promises to meet deadline

IRAQI officials have promised to meet next month’s deadline for disclosing information about banned weapons as serious differences emerged between the UN and Washington over what constitutes Iraqi violations of the Security resolution.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iraqi officials made the commitment during talks with chief inspector Hans Blix and other team members after they arrived in Baghdad on Monday to resume the weapons inspection programme after a four year hiatus.

“Iraq is committed to declare all it possesses regarding weapons of mass destruction, if it still has any of them ... and will also declare all of its activities in the chemical, biological and nuclear fields, even those of civilian use,” ElBaradei said.

“Iraq is committed to delivering this report before December 8,” he added.

Meeting the December 8 deadline is one of the key demands laid down in the new Security Council resolution, which authorised UN inspectors to return to Iraq.

President George Bush has threatened military action if the Iraqis fail to co-operate fully with the resolution.

ElBaradei said the Iraqis were co-operating so far with the inspectors and had pledged to continue “implementing Security Council resolutions.”

“We hope that this oral commitment will be translated into fact when we begin inspections next week,” he added.

Blix and his team arrived in Baghdad as British and American warplanes bombed Iraqi air defence systems in the northern no-fly zone.

The US military said the attack was launched after Iraqi gunners fired on the jets during routine patrols.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Iraqi anti-aircraft fire “appears to be a violation” of the latest Security Council resolution.

However, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan took issue with that interpretation, saying in Kosovo that “I don’t think the council will say that this is in contravention of the resolution that was recently passed”.

Bush has warned of “zero tolerance” of Iraqi infractions, warning they could lead to war.

Iraq considers flights over the northern and southern zones as a violation of its sovereignty, and the Security Council never explicitly approved the operation.

Annan’s interpretation, which is widely held within the 15 member council, is another example of the differences between UN and US officials over the inspection programme, which is considered President Saddam Hussein’s last chance to avoid war with the United States.

The Americans are pushing for early, intrusive inspections of presidential palaces and other sensitive sites, while UN authorities are speaking of building trust between the inspectors and the Iraqis.

An Iraqi government newspaper, Al-Iraq, insisted yesterday that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction.

It added “the US government wants to attack Iraq under the pretext of the banned weapons and their alleged danger”.