Iraq Ends Cooperation With U.N.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Wednesday halted cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors to protest the 8-year-old economic sanctions against the country.
"Iraq completely suspends its cooperation with the U.N. Special Commission within its current setup and the International Atomic Energy Agency," said a statement released after a meeting of Iraqi leaders chaired by Saddam.
The news came hours after Iraq's Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution urging Saddam and other Iraqi leaders to freeze relations with members of the U.N. investigation.
After the parliamentary vote, the White House quickly responded with a firm statement, CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports.
"Once again, they appear to be heading down a road clearly not in their self-interest," said P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Arriving in New York Wednesday, U.N. Chief Weapons Inspector Richard Butler said if Iraq decides to break "cooperation with us and make a run for it on their own, that is very serious. And the Security Council will have to deal with that."
Butler said he would present his findings to the Security Council on Thursday, but would meet with Secretary-General Kofi Annan Wednesday.
The sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, sparking the Gulf War. They block the country from freely exporting its most valuable commodity oil. They cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify Iraq has destroyed its chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles.
Wednesday's move followed the collapse of talks Tuesday, when Butler abruptly left Baghdad.
Butler, who had recently reported the discovery of traces of a deadly chemical on Iraqi missile fragments, had been demanding more information, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.
However, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz called the matter just another ploy to abstain from lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq placed in 1990 after the Gulf War.
"So where is the end to this game?" said Aziz on Tuesday. "Where is the end to the suffering of the Iraqi people?"
Butler said early Wednesday that he had refused a demand by Aziz to declare that Iraq no longer held any weapons of mass destruction and that the U.N. mission was therefore accomplished.
"He asked me to simply declare them clean, declare that it's over. And I said I can't do that without the evidence. I don't have a magic wand. It has to be based on evidence. And he said, 'Well, if you can't do that, if you can't do it our way, we'll suspend talking with you for a while'," Butler told Reuters Television in London.
Aziz insists Iraq has gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction, but inspectors like Richard Spertzel don't believe him.
"There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that they are hiding a biological weapons capability," aid Spertzel.
The Clinton administration is hoping Annan can find a way around this latest impasse before it becomes another military confrontation. Saddam appears to be betting the U.N. would rather ease the sanctions than go through another standoff.