U.N. Inspectors in Standoff at Iraqi Ministry

The head of a United Nations inspection team locked in a standoff with Iraqi authorities over access to a government ministry broke off her vigil Monday to inspect another site on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Team leader U.S. Army Maj. Karen Jansen took most of her 16-member group on an unannounced visit to the new site but left five inspectors in a car on guard outside Baghdad’s Agriculture and Irrigation Ministry.

Nineteen hours after it began, there was no sign of a compromise in the standoff at the building--the first Baghdad ministry headquarters that U.N. inspectors have demanded to enter.

In Washington, the State Department deplored Iraq’s stance and demanded immediate access to the building.

“Once again the government of Iraq is refusing to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions,” the State Department spokeswoman, Margaret Tutwiler, said.

“We deplore Iraq’s failure to meet its obligations and emphasize that the Iraqi authorities must allow this inspection to proceed immediately,” she told the regular briefing for reporters.

Jansen and her team, who are monitoring destruction of Iraq’s chemical warfare manufacturing facilities, demanded access to the ministry on Sunday morning under U.N. Persian Gulf War cease-fire resolutions.

Employees were freely entering and leaving the building, and there was no sign of security forces or police in the area.

Before leaving for the new site, Jansen said she was waiting for a decision from New York on the next step in the standoff. The Security Council Monday demanded Iraq immediately permit U.N. inspectors to search the ministry for weapons information.

Iraqi officials say the ministry is a civilian institution unconnected with weapons of mass destruction, which the U.N. inspectors are empowered to destroy.