No Wiggle Room for Iraq

Iraq’s latest defiance of U.N. resolutions has brought swift condemnation from the Security Council and unambiguous warnings from Washington and London of a potential military response. Baghdad still has time to rescind its order barring American experts from working on U.N. weapons inspection teams in Iraq. That is its only option, because the resolutions that require Iraqi cooperation with international efforts to destroy its long-range missiles and its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons plants are not negotiable. Until Iraq rids itself of those weapons, the economic embargo put in place after it invaded Kuwait in 1990 will remain. There is no wiggle room in that requirement.

This is Saddam Hussein’s most brazen effort to test the political will of the Security Council--and Washington’s mettle--since he moved his troops toward the border with Kuwait three years ago. That adventure ended after President Clinton dispatched a carrier battle group and tens of thousands of troops to the area. In all probability this new challenge was inspired by the divisions that emerged in the Security Council last week, when China, France and Russia succeeded in watering down an American- and British-sponsored resolution aimed at punishing Iraq for interfering with the U.N. inspection teams. France and Russia have since warned Baghdad against trying to challenge U.N. resolutions. Perhaps this clear sign that it has fewer sympathizers than it thought will prompt Iraq to forget about trying to bar American inspectors.

If not, a military response might well be the next step. Certainly purposeful measures are needed to show there has been no weakening in international determination to deny Iraq weapons of mass destruction or the chance to hide them. For nearly six years Iraq has done its best to hobble U.N. efforts to locate and destroy those weapons. Now it seeks to dictate the terms of inspection by barring Americans, the most knowledgeable members of the inspection teams. The Security Council has said no to that, a decision that--barring a prompt change of mind in Baghdad--must now be enforced.