Top U.N. Inspectors Returning to Iraq

The chief U.N. weapons inspectors will return to Iraq on Feb. 8 for two days of talks on the search for banned arms, Iraqi and U.N. officials said Saturday.

On Thursday, Iraq invited Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei for a new round of talks after Blix charged in a report to the U.N. Security Council that Baghdad had not fully accepted disarmament.

In a letter Friday, Blix and ElBaradei proposed a Feb. 8-9 visit. But they also said they would be willing to make the trip only after the Iraqis removed major obstacles to inspectors’ work.

Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the U.N. inspectors in New York, said the teams still need to clarify “the purpose of the visit” and “how to achieve prompt progress in the resolution of open disarmament issues.”

Blix and ElBaradei are to report to the council on Feb. 14 on the status of inspections. The reports could determine whether President Bush orders military action against Iraq for allegedly refusing to disarm.

ElBaradei has cited two specific issues needing resolution: a dispute over allowing U-2 reconnaissance flights to aid the inspectors’ work and the refusal of Iraqi scientists and other weapons specialists to submit to private interviews with U.N. inspectors.

ElBaradei suggested that he and Blix were willing to meet with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in an effort to clear away remaining obstacles and try to head off war. But Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz said Saturday, “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Even as plans for the top inspectors’ visit were confirmed, the volley of threats between the U.S. and Iraq continued. Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel that Iraq will launch thousands of suicide attackers against U.S. troops if they invade.

“We are looking forward to the time when they have finished with air bombardments and send in ground troops against us. They will come up against very hard resistance everywhere,” he said.

“We do not have long-range rockets or bomber squadrons, but we will deploy thousands of suicide attackers ... martyrs,” he said. “These are our new weapons, and they will not just be used in Iraq.”

Meanwhile Saturday, U.N. inspectors visited the biology department at Baghdad University. About 150 students streamed outside with hastily made placards, reading in English, “Bush Is a Killer,” “We Want Peace” and “No Blood for Oil.”