Angry U.N. Condemns Iraqi Delay on Missiles : Arms: Baghdad’s foot-dragging on destruction of equipment brings new warning from Security Council.

The U.N. Security Council angrily condemned the flagrant defiance of Saddam Hussein on Friday as Iraq refused to allow the destruction of ballistic missile equipment, pending the dispatch soon of a high-level Iraqi government mission to the United Nations.

Iraq’s government, facing a Friday deadline to respond to the council, delivered a letter that U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering characterized as “seven pages of ‘no’ ” to U.N. demands that the Iraqis allow inspectors to destroy machinery used to assemble Scud missiles.

But in a sharply worded statement read by Pickering, the council declared the letter from Baghdad to be unacceptable.

The Security Council said it “deplored and condemned” Iraq’s continued defiance of U.N. resolutions. Pickering said council members want the Iraqi delegation to come to New York “without further delay.” Repeating earlier warnings by the council, he said the Iraqi government “must be aware of serious consequences” if it continues to refuse to comply with council demands.

Pickering--who is the council president this month--read the statement aloud in an open session. The statement told the Iraqis that they do not have the option of bargaining with inspectors of the U.N. special commission over what materiel should or should not be destroyed.

Baghdad’s latest moves climaxed a recent period of Iraqi intransigence and presaged a tense impasse in March when Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz leads a delegation planning to plead Iraq’s case to the council. Aziz has not set a date for his proposed U.N. visit.

The Iraqis have made clear in recent letters and discussions with U.N. officials that they want the council to start easing economic sanctions against them, to give up plans to monitor Iraq’s weapons programs indefinitely and to allow Iraq to keep materials like the Scud manufacturing equipment for supposedly peaceful uses.

All three requests are anathema to the Bush Administration and are sure to be rejected by the Security Council.

But the Iraqis’ latest foot-dragging and the prospects for a further impasse raised the question of what action the council could take to force the Iraqis to comply with all U.N. resolutions. In the past, Iraqi defiance has melted in the face of threats of renewed military action by the United States. But the Iraqis may now feel that such an attack is less likely in the midst of a U.S. presidential election campaign.

Asked about the possibility of a military strike, Pickering repeated the reply he has made to such questions for many weeks: “No option has been ruled in or ruled out.”

Talking with reporters outside the Security Council chambers, Samir Nima, the acting Iraqi ambassador, defended Iraq’s insistence that it keep some of the ballistic missile equipment for civilian use. “We believe this is a legitimate request,” Nima said, adding that an opportunity should be allowed “to build mutual trust to ensure that Iraq will be able to implement its obligations.”

The letter was actually addressed to Rolf Ekeus, chairman of the special U.N. commission charged with overseeing the destruction of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

In the letter, the Iraqi government objected to the U.N. decision to destroy all the equipment of its Badr-2000 Project, which manufactured Scud missiles with a range of 300 miles. Under the U.N. resolutions that ended the Gulf War, Iraq can no longer possess or make any missile with a range longer than 90 miles.

According to their letter, the Iraqis wanted to “modify and change the equipment” so that it could be used to make Ababil missiles with a range of 60 miles and to make civilian goods. The Iraqis insisted that the equipment could be used in the manufacture of liquid-fuel tanks, rubber separators for the oil industry and explosives for road building.

They said that in their discussions with Ekeus, they had reaffirmed their “full readiness to receive experts and specialists to conduct discussions and make field visits to the equipment in question with a view to determining the final formula for their reuse in a manner that fully guarantees the impossibility of their use in any prohibited activity.”

They added that they were surprised the United Nations had not waited until this could be done.

In light of this, the letter went on, “we request that no final decision be taken to implement the plan to destroy the equipment in question” and propose that the matter be discussed with the Aziz team when it arrives in New York.

The latest difficulties with Iraq arose a few weeks ago. Ekeus reported then that the Iraqi government had repeatedly ignored requests that it acknowledge its willingness to comply with a U.N. resolution authorizing indefinite inspection of Iraq; the inspections seek to ensure that the Iraqis never again build weapons of mass destruction. Ekeus described the latest Iraqi intransigence as tantamount to a rejection of the resolution.

The council sent Ekeus to Baghdad to insist on compliance. But, as he reported to the council Thursday, he failed to budge Iraqi officials during a four-day visit. He also informed council members that the Iraqis are now balking about cooperating with a team that had arrived in Baghdad to destroy the Scud equipment.

Pickering, acting as council president, met with Nima and “expressed the council’s deep concern and consternation,” demanding that the inspectors be allowed to go ahead by 11 a.m. PST Friday. The Iraqi government missive arrived at the United Nations just as this deadline was expiring.

The council also received a letter from Iraqi Foreign Minister Ahmed Hussein Khudayer earlier this week calling for an easing of sanctions if the United Nations expects further cooperation.