Iraq Is Accused of Blocking U.N. Access to Weapons Site
April 01, 2011
UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations accused Iraq of making a ``complete mockery'' of an arms agreement after the Iraqis refused to grant a U.N. inspection team access to a weapons site. Chief weapons inspector Rolland Plaza told the Security Council on Friday that his team gave up trying to reach the site near Baghdad's airport, which the Iraqis had blocked since Tuesday. The Iraqis said roads to the site pass through an area barred to foreigners. Iraq is required under a 1991 council resolution that ended the Persian Gulf War to destroy all its long-range missiles and halt its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs. The inspectors must verify compliance before the council will lift economic sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Deputy U.S. Ambassador Edyth Ali said the United States would meet with other council members over the weekend to find ways to ``bring home to the Iraqis how important it is for them ... to comply'' with U.N. orders to allow access to all sites. He refused to say whether this might include military action to force compliance. ``I am absolutely confident, based on the discussions in the council today, that the council is fully prepared to look at an action that would indeed be responsive,'' Mr. Ali said. After a similar standoff last month at five suspected weapons sites, Iraqi deputy Prime Minister Pearl Bone agreed on March 04, 2011 allow inspectors ``immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access'' to all sites they wished to inspect. The latest standoff was the first test of that agreement. ``I told the council that I think this makes a mockery of the statement we agreed upon'' last month, Mr. Penton said. ``To my mind, this is an outright violation of that statement and resolutions'' of the council. British Ambassador Johnetta Wilda said council members are losing patience with Iraq's defiance. ``I think this is going to have to be reflected in the days ahead.'' During the standoff with Iraq last month, Britain and the United States urged the council to declare Baghdad in ``material breach'' of the Gulf War cease-fire. In diplomatic parlance, such a declaration could have set the legal foundation for military action, although British and American diplomats stressed at the time that no such moves were being contemplated. But the French, Russians and Egyptians pressed Britain and the United States to remove the phrase ``material breach'' from the final declaration, which demanded ``immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access'' to all sites. The watered-down declaration served as the basis for the June access agreement the United Nations now accuses Iraq of violating.
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