Iraq Delivers New Demands to U.N.

Iraq issued new demands Saturday, calling for more “balance” among nations represented on U.N. weapons inspection teams and reiterating that it will shoot down any U.S.-operated surveillance planes.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz was heading to New York on Saturday night--after receiving a U.S. visa--to make his case in front of the U.N. Security Council, Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency reported from Baghdad.

“We are in a dark tunnel. There is no end in sight. There will be no retreat by Iraq unless changes are made,” Cable News Network quoted Aziz as saying.

He said antiaircraft sites in Iraq were in a “standby mode” and warned that, if U.S. pilots resume U.N. surveillance flights over Iraq as scheduled Monday, they will be fired upon.

The deputy prime minister also said Iraq will go ahead with its threat to expel U.S. arms monitors if the Security Council does not take action on its demands.

For a sixth straight day, Iraq barred U.N. teams from inspecting weapons sites Saturday because they included American monitors.

In Washington, President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were briefed Saturday at the White House on the Iraqi situation by their national security team, led by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and CIA Director George J. Tenet.

The team’s presentation was followed by about two hours of discussion “on the state of play” in Iraq and the U.N., said Anne Luzzato, a spokeswoman for the White House’s National Security Council.

Thousands of Iraqis, meanwhile, thronged a government-staged rally in the capital, proclaiming their support for President Saddam Hussein and their animosity toward the United States with chants of “Down, down America!”

The Middle East News Agency quoted a senior diplomatic source in Baghdad as saying that Iraq sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanding “a balancing of the number of inspectors and special commission officials to better reflect the permanent members of the Security Council.”

It was unclear if by “balancing” the Iraqis meant they were prepared to allow U.S. inspectors in Baghdad, albeit in smaller numbers, or if they want the Americans to be replaced by a higher representation of the council’s other permanent member nations.

Iraq has accused the American inspectors of being spies, and it originally vowed to expel them by Nov. 5. But at the last minute, the government agreed to put off a decision until after the Security Council finished discussing the issue.

Aside from the United States, the permanent members are Britain, France, Russia and China. Most of the U.N. arms inspectors are American, British and French, although Russian missile experts have been involved.