S P E C I A L:

The Standoff with Iraq

Security Council prepares statement backing inspectors

Ritter, left, leads the weapons inspection team in question

January 13, 1998
Web posted at: 11:11 p.m. EST (0411 GMT)

Latest developments:

• 'Unanimous support' expected
• Charges of inflated figures
• Replay of crisis rhetoric
• Related stories and sites

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council expects to issue a statement this week condemning Iraq for once again preventing a U.S.-led weapons inspection team from doing its work.

The Security Council met Tuesday to discuss the latest standoff with Iraq, which lived up to its threat and prevented a team led by American Scott Ritter from conducting inspections.

Baghdad said team members were nearly all from the U.S. or Britain, and that it will bar Ritter's team from doing its job Wednesday as well.

"We cannot accept such numbers because obviously the American dominance of that team is very clear," said Nizar Hamdoon, Iraqi ambassador to the U.N.

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A L S O :

14 U.S. warships in Persian Gulf region

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'Unanimous support' expected

Security Council President Alain Dejammet of France said all 15 council members agreed they must give "unanimous support" to U.N. weapons chief Richard Butler as he travels to Baghdad later this week to try to resolve the situation.

The council is deliberating on a statement that may be approved Wednesday or Thursday. The original American draft would "condemn in the strongest terms Iraqi actions attempting to dictate the composition of U.N. weapons teams."

The draft is expected to undergo revisions, and diplomats said Russia wants to mention the need for more balanced representation on the team. It is also not clear whether the word "condemn" would remain in the text.

The statement threatens no specific future action. It calls for Iraqi compliance with U.N. demands and supports Butler's planned talks in Baghdad, which begin Monday.

Richard Butler 833K/38 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

"Chances are good (the council) will reject what Iraq has done and insist that they have no right to determine who will be on our inspection teams," Butler told CNN. "They have no right to determine whom is or isn't acceptable in our teams."

Butler also said Iraq's accusation that Ritter is an American spy is "simply not true."

"Scott Ritter is a professional arms control inspector. He's a man of great ability and dedication. He is not a spy," Butler said.

The U.N. apparently has put Ritter in charge of inspecting particularly sensitive sites in Iraq. Three other carloads of inspectors completed their day's work without incident Tuesday.

Charges of inflated figures

Iraq said Tuesday that Butler inflated figures on the number of inspectors and their nationalities. That prompted Russia to call him in for an explanation.

Hamdoon said Ritter's team included 16 genuine inspectors, and that 14 of them were American or British. Iraq said figures Butler presented to the Security Council earlier were misleading because they included support personnel, drivers and staff used to watch the perimeter of sites under inspection.

"The participation of a number of such persons does not alter the true nature of the composition of a particular inspection team," Hamdoon said in a letter to the council.

Butler said the Ritter team has 30 members from 12 different nations.

In his letter, Hamdoon also said that the inspection of some of the sites that Ritter and his team visited Monday was aimed at determining "the presence of any means of spying" on U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) facilities in Baghdad and not searching for weapons of mass destruction.

Replay of crisis rhetoric

Iraq's newest challenge produced a replay of the crisis rhetoric that followed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's move late last year to ban American inspectors, which resulted in a three-week halt to arms inspections.

"It really looks as if Iraq is looking for any excuse not to comply with its international obligations toward the Special Commission and the Security Council," said British Ambassador John Weston.

He said Iraq's failure to comply with U.N. resolutions "will certainly have consequences, and those consequences will not be the early lifting of sanctions."

Hamdoon countered by saying that the heavy use of American and British inspectors underscores that these countries have "the aim of misleading the Security Council and international opinion about the facts in Iraq."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a briefing Tuesday that it is up to the United Nations and UNSCOM to decide how inspection teams are composed.

"And I would hope that Iraq will accept that premise and that we will be able to continue our work unimpeded," he said.

Meanwhile, the official Iraqi News Agency INA said Tuesday that Iraq will not bow to U.S. threats over weapons inspections.

In Washington, the White House said it preferred to act in concert with its allies in response to Iraq's move. But it remained ready to act alone if need be in the latest crisis.

UNSCOM is charged with ensuring the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction under the terms of the 1991 Persian Gulf War cease-fire.

Senior U.N. Correspondent Richard Roth, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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