2nd U.N. Team Sought to Probe Iraqi Chemical Use

Industrialized member nations of the U.N. Security Council, moving to prod Iraq toward a peace agreement with Iran, on Friday urged the dispatch of a second expert team to investigate Iranian charges of renewed chemical weapons use by Baghdad in the eight-year Persian Gulf War.

As the second week of peace negotiations ended with no discernible progress, the 15-nation council met in closed session to consider a request by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati for another probe. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who reportedly opposes the request, is expected to honor it nonetheless.

A previous U.N. team reported Monday that Iraq was guilty of extensive use of chemical weapons in recent months. Observers said a second negative report likely would embarrass Iraq and could subject Baghdad to condemnation by the Security Council--which could put Iraq at a disadvantage in further peace negotiations.

Balks at Signing

Thus far, Iraq has balked at signing a peace accord before opening face-to-face talks with Iran. Until Friday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz had not met with Perez de Cuellar all week, confining himself to toughly worded statements read by spokesmen.

Although a smiling Aziz entered the U.N. headquarters building Friday amid wide speculation that he and the secretary general might announce a compromise, he left an hour later without comment to reporters.

When the council met Friday, it first heard a report by Norwegian Lt. Gen. Martin Vadset, who led military and technical experts on a visit to Tehran and Baghdad earlier this week to determine how to organize the supervision of a peace agreement in the event that a cease-fire can be declared.

Hoped to Set a Date

Last week, Perez de Cuellar voiced the hope that he might be able to set a cease-fire date soon after the return of Vadset’s mission. But he has been unable to win Iraq’s consent because of its insistence on face-to-face talks first.

At the council session following Aziz’s appearance, a participant who spoke on the condition that he not be identified said industrialized countries pressed for a new investigation into Iraq’s alleged use of chemical weapons in the war. The members include the United States, Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan and Brazil.

Perez de Cuellar was reported opposed because of the possible disruption of his delicate negotiations and because of the difficulty of finding qualified experts.

Chinese Ambassador Li Luye sought to quiet the dispute by issuing a carefully neutral statement, saying that “no delegation objected” to sending an investigating team but that the decision was left to Perez de Cuellar.

Clandestine Contact

Another visitor to U.N. headquarters Friday was Under Secretary of State Michael H. Armacost, who conferred with Perez de Cuellar. Armacost also allegedly was making clandestine contact with Iranian diplomats to secure the release of U.S. hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian Muslim forces, although there was no confirmation of that report.

On the Iran-Iraq war front, Tehran Radio reported that Iranian jets carried out three bombing raids against Iraqi positions at the front before returning safely to base.

Hints of Mass Executions

Meanwhile, Iran’s chief justice hinted that members of the outlawed opposition Moujahedeen were being executed without trial after the rebel organization’s offensive into western Iran last week.

“The judiciary is under very strong pressure from public opinion (asking) why we even put them on trial, why some of them are jailed and all are not executed,” Moussavi Ardabili said of the Moujahedeen.

The Moujahedeen’s National Liberation Army penetrated more than 60 miles into Iran from bases in Iraq and occupied several towns in an offensive which was finally repulsed last Friday.

‘Making Our Job Easy’

“The people say they should all be executed without exception,” Ardabili said in a Friday prayer sermon broadcast on Tehran Radio. “I should thank (the Moujahedeen) for making our job easy.”

He said there was no longer any need to send Moujahedeen rebels to trial in groups of 10 or 20 and get involved in cumbersome paperwork.

A Moujahedeen spokesman in Baghdad, Iraq, was quoted by Reuters as saying that Ardabili’s remarks show the Iranian government is intent on “sending groups of defenseless and innocent prisoners to the firing squad to cover up its military defeats.”

Another opposition group said Iran had started executing groups of political prisoners and burying them in mass graves.

A Tudeh (Communist) Party radio broadcast from Kabul, Afghanistan, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, said Tehran is using the Moujahedeen offensive as a pretext for “an extensive massacre of the forces of that organization and other political prisoners in the country.”