Iraq Bars U.N. Arms Experts From Entering ‘Sensitive Site’
A team of United Nations arms experts has suspended its inspection program after being barred by Iraq from entering a “sensitive site,” a senior U.N. inspector said Thursday.
“We are waiting here. We have suspended our operations,” chief inspector Nikita Smidovich said.
Smidovich said that, since his arrival Monday to lead a team of international arms experts, he was allowed to enter one site deemed by Iraq as crucial to national security.
“The other site we were not even allowed to approach,” the veteran Russian inspector said.
Rolf Ekeus, chairman of a U.N. special commission scrapping Iraq’s banned weapons under the 1991 Persian Gulf War cease-fire, informed the Security Council on Wednesday of the problems facing Smidovich’s latest mission.
The Security Council has asked Baghdad to give Smidovich unimpeded access to any site he wishes to inspect.
During a visit to the Iraqi capital last month, Ekeus and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz signed a pact under which Baghdad pledged to grant U.N. inspectors immediate access provided that they fully respected Iraq’s concerns over sovereignty when visiting “sensitive sites.”
Smidovich said he was waiting for instructions from Ekeus on what to do next. His experts, he said, have returned to their base in Baghdad.
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