New U.N. Warning on Inspections Is ‘Unnecessary,’ Iraqi Official Says

Iraq on Saturday dismissed as “unnecessary” a U.N. draft resolution warning it to comply with a deal to open up its presidential sites to weapons inspectors.

Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rashid said the British draft resolution, which sets out severe consequences if Baghdad obstructs inspections, is redundant because the deal clinched by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is a cast-iron accord.

“We feel [it is] totally unnecessary to have any Security Council resolution to support the memorandum of understanding which we have reached,” said Rashid, a top Iraqi negotiator with the U.N. Special Commission weapons inspectors.

“It has the power of law. It does not need any endorsement,” Rashid told a news conference here.

Annan sealed a last-minute accord with Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz on Monday to defuse a standoff over access to eight presidential sites where U.N. weapons inspectors believe Iraq could be hiding prohibited weapons materials.

The agreement averted threatened U.S.-led military strikes on Iraq. Although the United States has welcomed the agreement, it has maintained its beefed-up forces in the Persian Gulf region.