Iraq Could Revive Nuclear, Chemical Arms Effort, U.N. Aide Says

Despite a two-year international campaign to destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, President Saddam Hussein’s regime remains capable of reviving its nuclear and chemical weapons programs, the U.N. official in charge of post-Persian Gulf War sanctions said Wednesday.

Rolf Ekeus, chief of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, said it is essential for the Security Council to maintain the economic embargo against Baghdad, especially the ban on sales of Iraqi oil.

“The capabilities are there; the supply system, including banks and payments, is there,” Ekeus said. “The day the oil embargo is lifted, Iraq will get all the cash. . . . With the cash, the suppliers and the skills, they will be able to re-establish all the weapons programs. It may grow up like mushrooms after the rain.”

Ekeus said his commission has destroyed Iraq’s large nuclear weapons design facilities, although he admitted it may have missed some clandestine laboratories. But, he said, Iraq maintains a cadre of scientists and engineers who could restore the program in time.

He also said Iraq can maintain at least part of its prewar network of foreign suppliers because its government has refused to identify firms that sold it nuclear technology and equipment.

Speaking to a lunch meeting arranged by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ekeus said the U.N. commission has destroyed 150,000 chemical weapons--including artillery shells and warheads for Scud missiles--as well as large amounts of bulk chemicals. But the chemical weapons programs also could be restored, he said, if the world community lets down its guard.

He said Iraq refuses to admit that it used chemical weapons in its war with Iran or against its own Kurdish population, despite conclusive evidence that it did so.

Ekeus also said inspectors have not accounted for 200 of Iraq’s prewar arsenal of 890 Scud missiles.

Under the terms of the Security Council resolution that ended the Gulf War, the oil embargo against Iraq will not be lifted until Ekeus certifies that all nuclear facilities have been eliminated.

So far, he said, Hussein seems more concerned about maintaining his nuclear potential than he is about returning to the oil market.

But pressure is building at the United Nations to lift the sanctions. Despite Ekeus’ arguments to the contrary, the Iraqi government maintains that it has complied with virtually all of the U.N. demands and is entitled to rejoin the world economy. Baghdad’s appeal has been endorsed by some European nations eager to resume lucrative trade with Iraq.

Ekeus said Hussein’s regime imposes petty restrictions on the commission’s work, hoping to slice at its authority without setting up major confrontations. For instance, he said, Baghdad recently sought to prevent U.N. personnel from using binoculars as part of a helicopter inspection of a suspected Iraqi weapons site.

“They are trying to narrow our rights” in piecemeal fashion, he said. “I can’t go to the Security Council when it is considering starvation in Somalia or slaughter in Bosnia and say I need an emergency meeting to consider binoculars.”