Weapons Inspector Says U.N. Should Offer Iraq ‘a Carrot’

The chairman of the U.N. commission charged with eliminating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction suggested Tuesday that “a carrot” be held out to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: a promise to lift oil sanctions for his full cooperation on the disarmament program.

But that move would defy a pledge by President Bush that no sanctions on Iraq will ever be lifted as long as Hussein is in power.

Rolf Ekeus, the Swedish chairman of the U.N. Commission on Iraq, said he has not heard anything from Bush on the issue for some time, and, in any case, he does not believe the United States has ever formally communicated Bush’s pledge to the United Nations.

Ekeus acknowledged, however, that it would be difficult to persuade the Security Council to adopt his proposal of holding out the carrot to the Iraqi dictator. “No one is prepared to commit themselves on this,” he said.

In a review of U.N. inspections, Ekeus sounded more optimistic than usual about the prospects for Iraqi compliance with all aspects of the weapons destruction program. He told a news conference that the current team of inspectors--the 45th to enter Iraq--had reported “some very interesting developments” and had so far been unable to find any of the Scud missiles that the Bush Administration has insisted are still hidden in Iraq.

Pressed to elaborate on the developments, Ekeus said, “The Iraqi side appears to be quite more forthcoming than previously.”

But he noted that the Iraqi government has refused to disavow the “outrageous attacks” against the inspectors by Hussein, who has called them “stray dogs and wolves tearing into the flesh of Iraq.”

Moreover, Ekeus said, the inspectors were subjected to “low-level harassment” and “psychological warfare” by Iraqis in the streets of Baghdad. He said their reception, however, was much better from the professionals in the Iraqi government and military.

Ekeus described the present inspection, which will go on until the month’s end, as “the first real test” of whether Iraq is willing to abide by the U.N. requirement that it permit ongoing and unconditional inspections of its territory to ensure it never again produces nuclear, chemical, biological and other weapons of mass destruction.