U.N. Suspends Serbia Sanctions : Balkans: Security Council also will lift arms embargo against Bosnia Muslims as reward for peace pact. Clinton to speak to nation on U.S. troop deployment.

The United Nations Security Council suspended economic sanctions against Serb-led Yugoslavia on Wednesday, giving Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic an immediate payoff for agreeing to the Bosnia peace accord.

The council also agreed to reward the Muslim-led Bosnian government by approving a gradual phaseout of the arms embargo, which had left the government at a military disadvantage with respect to the heavily armed Bosnian Serb militias.

At the same time, the White House announced that President Clinton will make a televised speech Monday night, launching an intensive campaign to convince Congress and the public that peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina is important enough to justify the commitment of up to 23,000 U.S. troops to the NATO-led force that is to police the pact.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton will delay for a day the planned start of a European trip to give himself time for the speech, which is intended to “help Americans understand the importance of the peace agreement that has been achieved and the unique responsibility the United States of America will have because of this agreement.”

Clinton says he will ask an openly skeptical Congress to approve the troop plan, probably before Bosnia’s warring factions meet in Paris early next month to sign the treaty that they initialed Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio. It will be an uphill fight, because a majority of members in both the Senate and House say they are not yet convinced that the move is in Washington’s national interest.

Administration officials maintain that Clinton has the constitutional authority as commander in chief to deploy American troops wherever he thinks necessary, even over the objections of the lawmakers.

At the United Nations, American Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright described the Security Council’s approval of the resolutions as “the first concrete results reflecting the decisions in Dayton.”

“We have given the parties the support they need to sign this historic agreement and ensure its effective implementation,” she said.

Albright was dismissive of complaints about the agreement that have issued from Pale, the current headquarters of the Bosnian Serbs. “The world has had enough of Bosnian Serb arrogance and brutality,” she said.

One resolution--approved by a unanimous vote of 15 to 0--suspended the economic sanctions that have crippled the economy of Serbia, which along with Montenegro constitutes the rump Yugoslavia, enough to pressure Milosevic into cooperating with U.S. diplomats in the grueling negotiations for a peace settlement. These sanctions--an embargo on almost all trade, a ban on outside flights and water transport and a freeze of international bank accounts--can be reimposed by the Security Council if Serbia or the Bosnian Serbs violate the terms of the agreement.

The resolution, however, does not suspend the similar economic sanctions imposed on the Bosnian Serbs. These will remain in place until the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led force arrives and Bosnian Serb military units withdraw behind zones of separation set down in the agreement.

Albright said that the initialing of the peace agreement offered strong evidence that sanctions did work in this case. “The sanctions appear to have achieved their purpose--far later than we would have hoped, but still earlier than some predicted,” she said.

The second resolution--approved by a vote of 14 to 0, with Russia abstaining--set in order a phased lifting of the arms embargo imposed on all republics of the former Yugoslav federation.

Under the resolution, the embargo on light-arms sales will be lifted in 90 days. The ban on the sale of tanks, aircraft, helicopters and other heavy weapons will be lifted six months after all parties in the former Yugoslav federation sign an arms-control agreement.

The Russian ambassador abstained, insisting that the lifting of an arms embargo did not contribute to peace in the region.

At the State Department, spokesman Nicholas Burns, asked about the chances of congressional approval, conceded that Congress has been hostile to U.S. troop plans in the past. But he said the Administration expects to fare better now that Milosevic, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman have signed the peace accord negotiated through U.S. mediation.

But Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.), chairman of the House National Security Committee, remained unconvinced. He complained that American troops “would not be perceived as neutral” in Bosnia because Washington has made no secret of its belief that the Bosnian Serbs are the primary aggressors and the Bosnian Muslims are the main victims in almost four years of ethnic warfare.

In the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale, hard-liners object to the deal initialed on their behalf by Milosevic. Some Bosnian Serbs have hinted that they may resume the war, attacking peacekeepers if they get in the way.

Burns said the U.S. government expects Milosevic to live up to a promise to cooperate with the NATO-led peace force. Milosevic controls the Yugoslav National Army, a force substantially superior to the Bosnian Serb militias, but it is far from clear that he would use force to prevent the Bosnian Serbs from violating the peace agreement.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov withheld approval of the military annex to the treaty, explaining that Moscow was not willing to place Russian peacekeepers under NATO command.

Burns predicted that the U.S.-Russian differences can be resolved quickly. But, he said, if they are not, the United States and its allies will go ahead without Moscow’s participation.

* AGAINST THE PLAN: Dornan, Rohrabacher oppose U.S. troop deployment. A35