Iraq to Block U.S.-Led Arms Inspections

Rekindling a smoldering confrontation with the U.S. and its allies, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared Monday that Iraq will block arms inspections by a United Nations team led by an American, a step President Clinton described as a “clear and serious” breach of the Persian Gulf War cease-fire.

Clinton predicted that the U.N. Security Council will take “strong and appropriate action” if Iraq carries out its threat.

The official Iraqi News Agency said Baghdad will ban a team led by former U.S. Marine Scott Ritter starting today because it considers him to be a U.S. spy and because it says his team has too many Americans. The agency said other U.N. inspectors would be allowed to operate.

A similar Iraqi threat in November touched off a crisis that eventually was papered over by Russian diplomacy. The United States at the time launched a military buildup in the region and pointedly insisted that it would keep all options open--including the use of military force.

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry warned: “We have a very significant force deployed in the region in furtherance of the president’s determination to see that the United States can pursue its objectives.” But he noted that Iraq has often backed down from similar confrontations.

“You’ve seen them try to provoke a response from the international community in the past,” McCurry said. “They have blocked inspections in the past. We’ve ‘been there, done that.’ We’ll have to see what kind of response we have in the days going forward.”

The Iraqi government spokesman said Ritter’s team--nine Americans, five Britons, a Russian and an Australian--will not be allowed to continue until it is re-formed in a balanced manner. U.N. officials said Ritter’s team will be augmented by other inspectors based in Baghdad. The full list will include 44 inspectors from 17 countries.

“Saddam Hussein shouldn’t be able to pick and choose who does this work,” Clinton told reporters at an unrelated White House event.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Iraq to withdraw its ultimatum until Richard Butler, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, visits Baghdad next week. “My advice to them would be to wait and discuss these issues with him and not take any precipitous action,” Annan said.

Butler, head of the U.N. special commission charged with scrapping Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, is expected in Baghdad next Monday. Some U.S. officials had expected Hussein to provoke a new crisis after his visit; Hussein’s action Monday was surprising only in its timing.

In a letter to the Security Council, Butler said he has directed Ritter’s team to continue its assignment despite the Iraqi objections. “I propose to instruct the chief inspector [Ritter] to seek to proceed with his business . . . if possible, until the planned program of inspections is completed,” Butler said.

Iraq insists that it has already complied with the U.N. resolutions demanding that it dismantle its weapons of mass destruction. But Butler’s U.N. inspectors accuse Baghdad of trying to conceal its weapons programs.

Although it is difficult to read Hussein’s motives, he appears to be hoping to pressure the Security Council to withdraw the inspectors and lift the postwar economic sanctions. But U.S. officials say that every time Hussein provokes a new crisis, he digs a deeper hole.

“Iraq can think it gains a victory if it postpones inspections for a week or two weeks or three days, but what it’s done is forced a loss . . . in the welfare of its own people and its ability to operate in the international community,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. He said that even if some Security Council members were ready to relax sanctions against Iraq, they could not do so in the face of such a provocation.