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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 15:31:24 +0000 (GMT)
From: Rania Masri <rmasri@leb.net>
NOTE: THe sanctions have to end for Iraq to have peace.
________________________________________________________________________
Iraq to Allow Inspections to Resume
Saturday, November 14, 1998; 10:17 a.m. EST
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq will allow U.N. weapons
inspections to resume without conditions, U.N. special
envoy Prakash Shah said Saturday, likely averting a
U.S. military attack.
Shah said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent a letter
to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan saying that the
work of inspectors from the U.N. Special Commission and
the International Atomic Energy Agency at suspected
weapons sites could resume.
There are ``no conditions ... in this letter,'' Shah
said.
``The point ... is that the leadership of Iraq has
decided to resume working with UNSCOM and IAEA and
allow them to perform their normal duties,'' Shah said
at a news conference.
Saddam's decision will probably defuse the crisis over
arms inspections that has led to threatened American
attacks on Iraq and a buildup of U.S. military forces
in the Gulf.
Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Nizar Hamdoon, said Friday that
Annan had sent a letter to Saddam. He said he didn't
know the contents, but Western diplomats said it would
repeat Annan's urgent appeal Wednesday to resume
cooperation with the inspectors immediately.
It was understood in Baghdad that the letter contained
a personal pledge by Annan to work for the lifting of
U.N. sanctions on Iraq if the weapons inspectors were
allowed to go back to work.
Iraq had demanded that the U.N. Security Council, in
offering a comprehensive review of the U.N. arms
inspections, specifically say that review was designed
to end the sanctions, which ban Iraq's free export of
oil and have devastated the country's economy.
Such a promise from Annan would be less than a Security
Council pledge, but it could offer Iraq a way out of
the current crisis as an American attack on the country
appeared more and more likely.
The news of the breakthrough came after statements
Friday by both Saddam and President Clinton appeared to
offer little way out of the crisis.
On Saturday, Iraqi newspapers appealed for Arab help in
the event an attack was launched, and Iraqis took to
the streets in government-organized demonstrations
backing Saddam.
``With our blood and souls we shall defend you,
Saddam,'' chanted members of the ruling Baath Party,
while at another demonstration Iraqi workers trampled
on and burned American and Israeli flags.
In his statement Friday, Saddam made clear that nothing
less than a pledge to lift U.N. sanctions would end the
standoff.
Saddam insisted he was not trying to create a crisis
with his decisions in August and last month to block
the searches by U.N. inspectors for hidden weapons.
Referring to Iraq's insistence that it see a path
toward ending U.N. trade sanctions, Saddam declared:
``Iraq will accept positively any initiative that meets
these just and balanced demands.''
But Clinton declared the standoff would only end when
Iraq resumed its cooperation with the U.N. Special
Commission.
The Security Council says the trade sanctions, which
limit the sale of Iraqi oil, cannot be lifted until the
inspectors certify that Iraq has destroyed those
weapons.
(c) Copyright 1998 The Associated Press
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