SUNS 4350 Tuesday 22 December 1998



UNITED NATIONS: UNITY ON IRAQ HARD TO FIND

United Nations, Dec 21 (IPS/Farhan Haq ) -- After ending four days of air strikes on Iraq, the U.S. government is confronted now with a  potentially larger challenge: rebuilding support at the United  Nations for its policy on dealing with Baghdad.

The level of dismay at the U.S. and British attacks on  military targets was evident Monday as the 15-nation U.N. Security Council was unable to agree on how to deal with the question of Iraq's weapons programmes.

After several hours of occasionally fractious discussions,  Council President Jassim Mohammed Buallay of Bahrain could only  say that the Council "is in the process of assessing its approach  to the Iraq question".

Any unity in the Security Council appeared to have been shattered by the U.S. and British strikes Dec. 16-19. Three of  the five veto-holding permanent members - Russia, France and China - sharply criticised the attack initiated by the other two members, the United States and Britain.

French President Jacques Chirac said Sunday that the eight-year-old U.N. embargo on Iraq needs to be ended, and U.N. monitoring of  Iraq's chemical, biological and missile weaponry needs to be  reshaped.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who had sharply criticised Washington's decision to strike without U.N. approval, argued, "Special attention must be paid to consolidating the United Nations' leading
role in international affairs."

Such proposals flew in the face of U.S. efforts to contain  Baghdad. Even as they terminated 'Operation Desert Fox', U.S. military leaders warned that they were prepared to call for new attacks - with or without Council approval - if Iraq did not  allow U.N. weapons inspections.

With no consensus behind either phasing out sanctions or  allowing fresh attacks, "the general agreement is that we need to look forward, to heal the wounds," said Kenyan Ambassador Njuguna Moses Mahugu. Mahugu and several Council ambassadors are worried that, if Council unity is not re-established, the United Nations may lack a clear Iraq policy.

The concern was shared by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who called for a Council meeting to review sanctions and Iraq's  cooperation with weapons inspectors just two days before the U.S. attack complicated any diplomatic solution.

"I think it is not helpful that the Council is divided, and I  would hope that in the weeks ahead we will find a way of bringing  everyone together," Annan said Monday.
While the air strikes had ended, at least for now, several disputes - particularly on the fate of the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) and its chairman, Richard Butler - lingered before the Security Council, dividing the membership.

Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon confirmed that, following the attacks, the UNSCOM weapons inspectors would not be allowed to  return to Iraq. With U.S. military officials asserting that the  missile strikes had set Iraq's weapons programme back by at least  one year, Hamdoon asserted that the attack had rendered the inspectors' work irrelevant. Also, Hamdoon predicted that there would be "a lot of fragmentation" in the Council on questions like UNSCOM's fate and  sanctions.

Chirac suggested that the U.N. inspectors could end their current phase of "intrusive" monitoring, such as surprise inspections of Iraqi sites, and begin "long-term" monitoring that relies less on aggressive searches and more on video surveillance of weapons installations. The new situations called for "fresh organisation, fresh methods", Chirac argued.

Washington and London are not so sure. "UNSCOM is a very important mechanism," US Ambassador Peter Burleigh said. "We  look forward to Iraq's early and full return to Iraq."

That likely would be a long wait. UNSCOM inspectors remained in  Bahrain, where Butler withdrew them the evening before the start of the U.S. attacks. The abrupt pull-out and Butler's negative report on Iraqi weapons cooperation last week caused some countries - particularly Russia - to blame the UNSCOM chair for providing a pretext for U.S. attack and to call for his removal.

Support for Butler, an Australian diplomat who repeatedly  ruffled Iraq's feathers, waned since the attacks began. Some diplomats privately argued that Iraq would not allow any more U.N. inspections with Butler at the helm. Annan was silent on Butler's fate Monday, saying it was "a question I would prefer not to answer today".

Yet the UNSCOM chairman still had his defenders. "A number of  countries found UNSCOM's message (that Iraq had not cooperated  with inspections) uncomfortable," British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said. "It was uncomfortable... but it was a  professional assessment. That is
no reason to shoot the messenger."

With so much disagreement on where to go next, the Council may  have to convene a special session next month to review Iraq's  cooperation and contentious issues like sanctions, just to be able to formulate an Iraq policy that can muster wide support.

Many Council members had predicted such a review by January before the attack, but the aftermath of the strikes complicates efforts to bridge the gap before the review begins.

One sign that the United Nations was trying to re-establish the fragile status quo destroyed by Operation Desert Fox came with the decision by Annan to allow the return of more than 100 U.N. humanitarian workers who were pulled out of Baghdad after fighting began. The aid workers will return to Baghdad from Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday, the United Nations announced.