U.N. Inspectors Back In The Field

U.N. weapons inspection teams returned to the field Friday, searching suspected weapons sites in probes that are scheduled to continue through the weekend.

Searches this week in and outside of the capital, Baghdad, have been the most intensive since U.N. teams were allowed to resume inspections last month.

The inspectors must certify that Iraq has destroyed its chemical, biological and nuclear programs and its long-range missiles. Until then, the U.N. Security Council will not lift economic sanctions it imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, triggering the Gulf War.

A hitch arose when an official of Iraq's ruling Baath Party, in a direct challenge to the inspectors, declared Thursday that U.N. teams would be barred from a party office in Baghdad that they tried to inspect the previous day.

If they return to the building, "they won't enter," a party leader, Latif Nsayyif Jassim, told reporters.

The U.N. inspectors insist they have the right under U.N. resolutions to examine any site without conditions. Neither the Iraqis nor U.N. inspectors have indicated that any teams have tried to return to the Baath Party office since Wednesday's standoff.

The inspectors resumed their work last month after a nearly three-month hiatus when Iraq banned them from visiting any new suspected weapons sites. Iraq backed down and pledged full cooperation as the United States and Britain were preparing to launch military strikes against it on Nov. 14.

At least three inspection teams in white, four-wheel drive vehicles with the U.N. logo were seen Friday leaving the Canal House, a former hotel that serves as the U.N. headquarters on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Eight U.N. teams checked 12 sites on Thursday, with two teams using helicopters, the official Iraqi News Agency said, quoting Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, who runs the National Monitoring Directorate.

In a weekly report to the Security Council released Thursday in New York, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, Richard Butler, said Iraq not only blocked the search of the Baath Party office but also placed unacceptable conditions on photographing bombs at a chemical weapons monitoring site Saturday.

That same day, he said, Iraq tried to prevent videotaping and refused to answer questions during a biological weapons inspection.

In another dispute that ended well Thursday, U.N. inspectors tried to search what Iraqis called a private home, Amin said. The Iraqis insisted they first get permission from the home's owners.

Two women inspectors entered "amid surprised faces of the residents of the house" and got approval, he said.

Almost 200 U.N. inspectors and other specialists are working in Iraq. The current round of work is scheduled to end Monday, U.N. officials have said.

Written by Waiel Faleh