U.N. Envoys Suggest Iraqi Defiance May Be Cracking

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s offers to permit U.N. arms inspectors limited access to his “presidential compounds” led some diplomats Thursday to suggest that he may be backing down from his defiant stand. But officials here said the proposals appear to fall short of what is required to determine whether the sites hide illegal weapons.

Russian, French, Turkish and Arab diplomats have been visiting Baghdad this week to find a resolution to the Iraqi impasse. That has generated reports that Iraq may permit inspectors into “presidential palaces” and other sites for a limited period, if accompanied by diplomats from the 15 nations represented on the U.N. Security Council. The council oversees the disarmament commission.

Delegates here stressed that nothing official has been conveyed to the council and that talks in Baghdad are continuing.

But, for example, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who is visiting Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, said Thursday that “there are some interesting proposals there, although they do not match up to our requirement of full compliance. . . . If the U.N. inspection regime is going to work, it must be unconditional.”

At the U.N., the Security Council met behind closed doors with Richard Butler, who heads the disarmament commission.

The council has demanded that Iraq provide full, unconditional access to whatever sites the inspectors need to investigate to complete their work. Iraq never has fully cooperated with the inspectors, but in recent months has stepped up its resistance by flatly placing what it calls presidential sites off limits.

The inspection program was set up after Iraq’s defeat by a U.S.-led alliance in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Butler’s team must certify that Iraq no longer has the capacity to wage nuclear, biological or chemical warfare and has rid itself of long-range missiles before the Security Council can lift economic sanctions imposed on the country.

Iraq says it is in compliance, but the inspectors refuse to agree until they have full access to all sites they believe may shelter illegal weapons or records of Iraq’s arms programs.

Officials with the inspection program are decidedly wary of Iraqi offers to provide restricted access to the presidential compounds.

Although Baghdad has focused attention on Hussein’s “presidential palaces” at eight locations, the U.N. inspectors are less interested in the residences than in surrounding buildings and territories.

One presidential compound in Baghdad includes more than 500 structures, including garages, warehouses and “all kinds of buildings that are not presidential bedrooms,” one disarmament official said.

Another presidential site sprawls across a mountainous area that inspectors believe may camouflage underground bunkers.

But at Thursday’s Security Council meeting, Russian Ambassador Sergei V. Lavrov and Chinese delegate Qin Huasun argued for what would be a significant shift in the inspection program, according to sources inside the council chamber.

They contended that Iraq should be considered “innocent until proven guilty” in the search for illegal weapons. That brought a rebuke from British Ambassador John Weston, who suggested that Iraq’s record of deceit about its weapons of mass destruction robs it of a presumption of innocence.

The bulk of the meeting was devoted to questions about Butler’s relations with the media. The Australian diplomat has become a near-regular on U.S. and European television news programs since the Iraq standoff began in October.

Lavrov considers provocative Butler’s candid assessments of Iraq’s weapons capacity and its refusal to cooperate with the inspectors. Butler responded by refusing all press interviews this week.

Lavrov said after the meeting that he was “satisfied” with Butler’s answers Thursday.