World

Iraq: Party HQ Off Limits

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 8, 1998 / 7:35 AM EST / CBS

U.N. inspectors searching suspected weapons sites in Iraq will not be allowed to enter an office of the ruling Ba'ath Party that they were turned away from earlier, a party official said Thursday.

"They won't enter," Latif Nsayyif Jassim, a member of the party's leadership, said during a news conference at the office in Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood.

"You will not find inside this office any materials related to what they are looking for," he said.

The office is inside a two-story stucco building behind black gates. There are no signs outside indicating it is an office of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's party, but there is an emblem of the party over the door.

Jassim insisted that the office was private property and that it was his decision whether anyone could enter. He said the party works on political matters and not anything related to the inspectors' work.

"My base is protected, and no one can enter except a party member or an Iraqi national," he said.

U.N. inspectors have insisted they have the right under U.N. resolutions to enter any site in Iraq without conditions.

On Wednesday, a team of 12 inspectors was turned back when it tried to enter the office.

An Iraqi minister had said weapons inspectors pulled out of the inspection at the site after Iraq, citing agreements it said it had reached with the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), allowed only four out of the 12 inspectors in.

An Iraqi official further demanded the inspectors first provide a written declaration "on the material and items" they sought, the official Iraqi News Agency said. The official was not identified by name.

Later Wednesday, however, an Iraqi official suggested the Iraqi escorts had made a mistake in declaring the site sensitive.

Jassim's statements came just hours after a full contingent of inspectors resumed searches of suspected weapons sites Thursday.

"Everyone's gone out today, attempting to carry on their normal activities," said Caroline Cross, the inspectors' spokeswoman. "We're just carrying on with our scheduled activities."

Cross said the teams had made no changes in their routine.

"There is no reason why we should stop," she said. But she declined to say whether teams would try to re-enter the site.

Iraqi newspapers Wednesday carried the official agency report on the incident. But surprisingly, no newspaper mentioned it in editorials.

Jassim's comments seemed sure to complicate matters.

He said the inspectors' attempt to search the site was "unprecedented."

Asked if inspectors would be barred again, he said, "Yes, it will be forbidden because there is no justification. Nor will you find by entering anything inside that is banned or prohibited."

The inspectors must certify that Iraq has dismantled its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, as well as its log-range missiles, before the U.N. Security Council will lift an oil embargo and other sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The sanctions have devastated Iraq's economy.