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Clash over French flight to Iraq setback for arms inspections
A heated clash between members of the Security Council over the legality of a French flight to Baghdad on Friday underlined the difficulties of getting UN arms inspectors back into Iraq.
A heated clash between members of the Security Council over the legality of a French flight to Baghdad on Friday underlined the difficulties of getting UN arms inspectors back into Iraq.
The plane, a boeing-737-800 chartered from the French company Euralair and carrying 70 medical staff and athletes, landed at Saddam International Airport at 1120 gmt after a non-stop, five-hour flight from Paris.
The deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, James Cunningham, said that the flight was a violation of the sanctions
regime which the Security Council imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
The French ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, retorted, “We consider that there is no flight embargo against Iraq.”
Both men were speaking to reporters after what one diplomat described as a heated Council meeting.
The meeting had been called to hear a briefing from Hans Blix, chairman of the Iraqi arms control body, which was set up in December when the Council revamped its sanctions regime in resolution 1284.
Blix recalled that 44 inspectors had completed the first training course organised by the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) last month, and told Council members the commission was ready to start preliminary inspections if Iraq was willing to cooperate.
But one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the row over the French flight had highlighted divisions within the Council, which only encouraged Iraqi intransigence.
The French ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, retorted, “We consider that there is no flight embargo against Iraq.”
Both men were speaking to reporters after what one diplomat described as a heated Council meeting.
The meeting had been called to hear a briefing from Hans Blix, chairman of the Iraqi arms control body, which was set up in December when the Council revamped its sanctions regime in resolution 1284.
Blix recalled that 44 inspectors had completed the first training course organised by the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) last month, and told Council members the commission was ready to start preliminary inspections if Iraq was willing to cooperate.
But one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the row over the French flight had highlighted divisions within the Council, which only encouraged Iraqi intransigence.
Bureau Report