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Axis of Evil
Kofi sez Iraq accepts inspectors...
2002-09-16
Iraq unconditionally accepted the return of U.N. weapons inspectors late Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
Let's see what conditions are attached to "unconditional"...
"I can confirm to you that I have received a letter from the Iraqi authorities conveying its decision to allow the return of inspectors without conditions to continue their work."
"Sure. Send 'em right over..."
"There is good news," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said moments earlier.
"My house isn't going to be flattened and my family turned into dust bunnies..."
Sabri and Arab League chief Amr Moussa met late with Annan and transmitted a letter from the Iraqi government on the inspectors' return.
They'll concentrate on the inspectors and not on disarming or any other conditions. I'll be very surprised if there aren't any conditions there. This is a ploy to start everybody talking for another eleven years with nothing gettting accomplished.

Toldja so...
The text of a statement by the White House in response to Iraq's offer for the unconditional return of weapons inspectors:
As the president said, the U.N. Security Council needs to decide how to enforce its own resolutions, which the Iraqi regime has defied for more than a decade.

This will require a new, effective U.N. Security Council resolution that will actually deal with the threat Saddam Hussein poses to the Iraqi people, to the region, and to the world. That is the course the Security Council is on, and the United States is engaged in consultations with Council members and other partners in New York at this time.

This is not a matter of inspections. It is about disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi regime's compliance with all other Security Council resolutions.

This is a tactical step by Iraq in hopes of avoiding strong U.N. Security Council action. As such, it is a tactic that will fail.

It is time for the Security Council to act.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#1  Check out the letter to Annan-it says that the Iraqis are "ready to discuss the practical arrangements necessary for the immediate resumption of inspections." This gives them plenty of room to stall and ask to throw out inspectors they don't like. You need to look at that letter like Clinton ghost-wrote it, checking the fine print.
Posted by: Mark Byron   2002-09-16 21:42:30  

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