Iraqis Put Off Talks at U.N., Cite ‘Security’

Iraq said Saturday that it was postponing talks with the United Nations on future monitoring of its weapons program because Washington had reneged on an agreement to provide security for the Iraqi delegation.

The talks on arms control and monitoring, set to open in New York on Tuesday, are part of an accord struck last month during a visit to Baghdad by Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. commission scrapping Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

“We have delayed our departure because the Americans have not provided us with the security and protection that was previously agreed on,” Gen. Amer Rasheed, head of the delegation, said in Amman.

U.S. Embassy officials were not available for comment.

Rasheed, head of Iraq’s military industrialization commission, and a large team of top weapons experts and Foreign Ministry staff were due to leave Amman for New York on Saturday.

“We have not canceled our trip. We will wait here to see what will happen,” he said. He gave no further details and refused to comment on the upcoming talks.

Iraq is seeking a comprehensive understanding with the U.N. Security Council on demolishing its weapons of mass destruction in return for the lifting of sweeping trade sanctions imposed after its August, 1990, invasion of Kuwait.

An official source at Iraq’s Foreign Ministry earlier said it was impossible for the delegation to head for New York at a time when the United States was declining to provide protection.

It was not immediately clear what sort of protection the Iraqis are seeking.