Don’t Let Iraq Off the Hook

In the aftermath of last month’s American-British air attacks, Iraq insists it will have nothing more to do with the U.N. arms inspectors assigned to find and dispose of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. Ready to accept Iraq’s declaration as the last word on the subject, France has presented the U.N. Security Council with a proposal for an alternative to UNSCOM, the arms inspection system. The French plan departs radically from UNSCOM’s approach by emphasizing future control measures rather than locating Iraq’s existing terror weapons. The French stance all but assures that Iraq would succeed in retaining a formidable arsenal of prohibited arms and vindicate Hussein’s long defiance of U.N. resolutions, handing him a huge political victory.

Certainly broad international cooperation is required to prevent Iraq from making any future progress in acquiring nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. But the essential and immediate job is ridding Iraq of the weapons it already has, along with the long-range missiles to deliver them. The U.N. weapons inspectors have discovered how massive Iraq’s program to build and stockpile these weapons has been. Many remain unaccounted for, as the Security Council has been repeatedly told. There is simply no effective substitute for continuing the disarmament effort, which the French plan does not address.

If Iraq accepted the French proposal--and, despite expressing earlier qualms, it probably would--the embargo on Iraqi oil sales would be lifted. On Wednesday there were reports that the Clinton administration is considering a move to substantially ease the embargo. Without an embargo, French companies could begin legally profiting from development contracts they have already signed with Baghdad. The U.S. State Department has said it’s ready to discuss the French proposal, but--a crucial qualifier--only in the context of existing U.N. resolutions requiring Iraq to disarm.

Washington and London must stick to that insistence. An Iraq with a cache of terror weapons is an international menace. That is no less true today than when the disarmament effort began eight years ago.