After more than four hours of meetings, U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed
ElBaradei reported the Iraqis had presented unspecified "explanations on
some of the issues." The discussions resume Sunday.
The talks were pivotal, but they were "not the last chance" for peace,
ElBaradei said, clearly seeking to counter talk in Washington that the
time for diplomacy had all but run out.
ElBaradei and chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix were looking for
quick Iraqi concessions on practical matters in the disarmament effort
here, such as clearance to fly American U-2 reconnaissance planes in
support of their inspections.
They also were hoping to ensure that meetings continue with weapons
scientists in private. Another scientist submitted to an interview
Saturday � the fifth in three days � signaling a possible breakthrough on
this issue.
But they also wanted more: Documents, testimony or other evidence to
clear up discrepancies in Iraq's accounting for weapons of mass
destruction produced and weapons destroyed over a decade ago.
"If they don't have the orders (to destroy weapons), if they don't have
the paper, give us the people who were involved, to talk to," one U.N.
delegate said before the first meeting in a Foreign Ministry conference
room above a boulevard dotted with heroic statues of President Saddam
Hussein (news
- web
sites).
The first round of talks opened just after 4 p.m. Saturday with a
scheduled hour of high-level discussion between Blix, ElBaradei and Lt.
Gen. Amer al-Saadi, a Saddam Hussein adviser and head of the Iraqi
delegation. More than three hours of a full meeting between delegations
followed.
Afterward, Blix told reporters, "It is useful discussions we are
having. ... It was a very substantial discussion." But neither he nor
ElBaradei provided any details of what "explanations" the Iraqis offered.
Another senior U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
the Iraqis had presented documents but they would have to be studied
before inspectors could determine their value. He declined to say how many
were handed over or to specify their subject matter. No Iraqi officials
spoke with reporters afterward.
The two days of Baghdad talks will shape the reports the chief
inspectors must present Friday to the U.N. Security Council, whose member
nations are searching for unanimity on the next step in the explosive
crisis.
The council majority wants something short of a U.N. authorization for
war against Iraq, sought by President Bush (news
- web
sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news
- web
sites).
The U.S. and British governments contend that Iraq retains chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons programs prohibited by U.N. resolutions,
and threaten a military strike if not satisfied Saddam has disarmed.
In a jab at major U.S. allies, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
said Saturday countries such as France and Germany that favor giving Iraq
another chance to disarm are undermining what slim chance may exist to
avoid war.
"There are those who counsel that we should delay preparations" for war
against Iraq. "Ironically, that approach could well make war more likely,
not less, because delaying preparations sends a signal of uncertainty,"
Rumsfeld said in the opening address at an international conference on
security policy.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, at the same Munich conference,
spoke against accepting "the logic of a military campaign."
"We must give the inspectors more time," he said.
Bush said he will not wait much longer before moving against Saddam,
declaring in his weekly radio address that the Iraqi leader is wasting a
last opportunity to come clean.
In Berlin, meanwhile, a weekly magazine reported Germany and France
were working on a broad disarmament plan for Iraq designed to avoid war,
including the deployment of U.N. soldiers throughout the country,
reconnaissance flights and a tripling of the number of weapons inspectors.
The plan could be presented to the Security Council as a resolution,
Der Spiegel said, though it was unclear how the two countries or the
United Nations (news
- web
sites) would win Saddam's approval for carrying it out.
Rumsfeld said he heard of the proposal through press reports, but
suggested inspections only work if a country cooperates.
American military units, meanwhile, continue to converge on the Gulf
region, more than 100,000 personnel thus far to back up the U.S. threat.
In Turkey, top civilian and military leaders agreed to let the United
States send 38,000 troops to the country to open a northern front in any
Iraq war, private television NTV reported.
Washington had asked to station 80,000 troops in Turkey, but in the
face of strong public opposition to war Turkish leaders asked that the
United States reduce the figure.
In the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, thousands of
soldiers and civilian militia members � women and older men among them �
marched in a display of readiness for any U.S. attack, holding Kalashnikov
assault rifles aloft, carrying outsized portraits of Saddam.
Against this talk of war and peace, the more than 100 U.N. inspectors
went about their daily business in Iraq. Inspectors paid surprise visits
to industrial sites and a technical institute, and a nuclear team surveyed
parts of Baghdad with a vehicle monitoring for radiation.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said one U.N. team cordoned off an area in
Baghdad for four hours on Saturday and searched a printing plant, a
military factory and a kindergarten. Saturday was a holiday in Iraq and no
classes were in session.
U.N. officials were not immediately available for comment.
Also Saturday, coalition aircraft dropped 480,000 propaganda leaflets
over southern Iraq, warning civilians to stay away from areas occupied by
the military and giving a radio frequency in which they could listen to
information explaining U.N. activities in Iraq.
The Security Council banned Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and
longer-range missiles after Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War (news
- web
sites). During the 1990s, U.N. inspectors oversaw destruction of the
great bulk of chemical and biological weapons, and dismantled Iraq's
program to build nuclear bombs.
The U.N. experts resumed inspections last Nov. 27, after a four-year
gap, to certify that Iraq has no leftover weapons and did not restart the
arms programs during the U.N. absence.
