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Iraq asks UN about U.S. threats to Saddam Reuters Friday, March 22, 2002 http://www.iht.com/articles/52105.html UNITED NATIONS, New York Seeking to broaden talks on weapons inspectors, Iraq has angered Washington by asking the United Nations to answer questions about U.S. threats to topple President Saddam Hussein. . Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, released to the Security Council about 20 questions he received from Foreign Minister Naji Sabri of Iraq when they met March 7 to talk about the return of UN weapons inspectors, according to documents obtained by Reuters. . The questions ranged from whether U.S. threats against the Iraqi government were a breach of international law to whether what the Iraqis called U.S. "spies" would serve on inspection teams. . Iraq also asked how long inspectors would stay and whether Baghdad would be compensated for damage inflicted by U.S and British bombings to enforce a flight-exclusion zone. . Annan put the questions into categories and asked the 15 Security Council member nations for a response by April 10. He plans to meet Sabri again before the end of April. . Iraq's questions did not indicate that Baghdad would reject the return of the inspectors. But diplomats said they doubted Sabri would give a clear "yes" or "no" to that question at the April meeting. Instead he would probably send any replies to his questions back to Baghdad for analysis, they said. . The UN inspectors, who were sent to Iraq to check for evidence of possible development of weapons of mass destruction, left on the eve of a U.S.-British air strike in December 1998 that was intended to punish Baghdad for not cooperating with the arms experts. They have since been barred from returning. . The arms issue is key to any lifting of 11-year-old UN sanctions imposed at the close of the Gulf War. . U.S. and British envoys were expected to insist that Annan not reply to any Iraqi questions that could not be answered by Hans Blix, the chief UN arms inspector. . A U.S. official said that the questions included some "unacceptable conditions" that veered from Iraq's obligation to give inspectors "free and unfettered access." . "There are some questions that require technical answers and those should be responded to. Others appear as conditions and we find them unacceptable," said the official, who asked not to be identified. . The questions also have the potential of splitting the Security Council, particularly if its members decide to take a position on U.S. threats of action against Saddam, which numerous countries oppose at this time. . Specifically, Sabri asked whether "threats to invade Iraq and to change the national government by force violate Security Council resolutions" and "rules of international law." . He also asked whether it was possible to normalize relations between the Security Council and Baghdad "when calls are made for invading Iraq and overthrowing its national government by force." . Sabri asked whether elimination of the U.S.-imposed flight-exclusion zones over Iraq could be "guaranteed" and whether Baghdad would be compensated for the "destruction of its economic, educational and other infrastructure" caused by sanctions and violations of Iraqi sovereignty. . Other questions related to the inspections themselves, such as how much time it would take to complete remaining disarmament tasks if the UN arms experts returned. Blix has said that it could take his teams less than a year, providing there was progress in fulfilling key disarmament tasks. Sabri also asked whether there were any limits on the powers Blix would have and how inspectors from the United States and Britain could "fulfill a neutral international mandate." Blix, who attended the March 7 talks with Annan and Sabri, has said that inspectors would be fired if they worked for a government and that no one nationality would be excluded. Copyright © 2002 the International Herald Tribune ------------------------------------------------------------ See how the rest of the world sees today's news at http://www.cafe-uni.com. News of world events and international politics from the world's newspapers --------------------------------------------------------------------- Express yourself with a super cool email address from BigMailBox.com. Hundreds of choices. It's free! http://www.bigmailbox.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk