U.N. Chief Rejects Iraqi Invitation to Arms Inspectors

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Kofi Annan coolly rebuffed an Iraqi request that he dispatch U.N. weapons inspectors to Baghdad for “technical talks,” saying through a spokesman Friday that the proposal does not comply with Security Council conditions for the return of inspectors to Iraq.

Hans Blix, the head of the U.N. arms inspection team, had already turned down a similar Iraqi proposal for further discussions after his inconclusive last meeting with Iraqi officials in Vienna a month ago, officials here said.

At Iraq’s request, Blix and Annan have met with Iraqi officials three times this year, and had insisted on some concrete indications from Baghdad that inspections would resume before agreeing to further meetings.

In a letter delivered to Annan on Thursday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri asked Blix and his aides to visit Baghdad to “review” the outcome of disarmament talks held over the last decade.

Sabri said such talks could be “an important step toward ... the establishment of a solid basis for the next stage of monitoring and inspection activities”--far short of the clear commitment to renewed inspections that Annan has sought.

“The only thing that is new is the invitation to Baghdad itself,” said one U.N. official, who asked not to be named.

U.N. weapons inspectors have not visited Iraq since they left before U.S. and British bombing raids in 1998. The inspectors complained that they were denied full access to Iraqi military facilities, while Baghdad charged that they were spying for Western intelligence agencies.

Annan plans to discuss the Iraqi invitation during a private luncheon with the Security Council on Monday, said his spokesman, Fred Eckhard. But the secretary-general has already concluded that Iraq’s proposal for discussions about the possible return of inspectors “is at variance with the one laid down by the Security Council in its resolution of 1999,” Eckhard told reporters here Friday.

The council declared in 1999 that Iraq would first have to consent to the return of weapons inspectors, after which the inspectors would have 60 working days inside the country to assess Baghdad’s willingness to cooperate with the U.N. team. The inspectors would then report back to the council, which would determine if the inspections would go forward in exchange for a partial or complete lifting of trade sanctions.

Blix, who declined to comment on the Iraqi letter, does not have the authority to negotiate the terms under which his inspectors would operate, U.N. officials noted.

There appeared to be little likelihood that the Security Council would embrace the Iraqi proposal, according to diplomats here.

In Washington, Bush administration officials challenged the need for any further negotiations with Saddam Hussein’s government over the return of weapons inspectors.

“It should be a very short discussion,” Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Friday. “What he should say is, ‘Yes, I accept any time, anywhere, anyplace unfettered inspections.’ ”

In the Philippines, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that Hussein was not willing to comply with inspections and that there was no need for further discussions.

“The approach is spelled out in U.S. resolutions. We should not allow the Iraqis to move the goal posts,” said Powell, who was winding up a tour of Asia. “The goal is not inspections for inspections’ sake, but disarmament.”

On Monday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said U.N. inspectors would be unable to detect weapons plants and arms caches that he said Iraq has either buried deep underground or installed in trucks and other mobile facilities.

The French and Russian foreign ministries cautiously welcomed the Iraqi proposal Friday. But Britain voiced skepticism, assuring Washington of at least one key backer in the council discussions next week.

France, Russia and China have all strongly urged the Hussein government to open its doors to inspectors to avert unilateral U.S. action. Unlike the U.S. and Britain, the three other veto-wielding council members have also argued that military strikes against Iraq would be permissible only with the council’s express consent.

Even among critics of U.S. policy toward Iraq, however, there was the perception that the Iraqi letter was a ploy to forestall U.S. military action, diplomats said.

By offering the symbolic step of allowing inspectors back into Baghdad, if only for a meeting, the Hussein government hopes to continue avoiding both U.S. military action and a thorough independent search of its weapons inventory, suggested officials who have negotiated with the Iraqis here.