home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Time - Man of the Year
/
Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
/
moy
/
080392
/
0803996.000
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-04-08
|
3KB
|
60 lines
THE WEEK, Page 22WORLDItching for a Fight
Saddam snubs U.N. arms inspectors and now may face an ultimatum
Patience may have finally run out. The U.N. inspection team
that had been parked round the clock outside Iraq's Agriculture
Ministry for 17 days, waiting to search for missile documents
believed to be stashed inside, abandoned its mission. Faced with
menacing mob demonstrations that included peltings with eggs and
tomatoes, tire slashings and an attempted assault with a skewer,
the inspectors retreated, empty-handed.
The sudden withdrawal immediately prompted an angry
exchange of threats between Washington and Baghdad and frantic
negotiations at U.N. headquarters in New York City to seek Iraqi
compliance. By week's end the U.S., Britain and other allies
were careering toward another showdown with Iraq. Shore leave
in the Mediterranean for crew members of the aircraft carrier
Saratoga was canceled, President Bush met with top defense
advisers, and officials in several Western capitals huddled to
phrase an ultimatum.
Western analysts are worried that Saddam Hussein, recently
reported to have put down a revolt of his own senior officers,
is itching to pick a fight with the outside world to prove he's
in control despite the debilitating international embargo and
the presence of the U.N. arms inspectors. He has defied demands
for information on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, refused
to renew an agreement allowing relief workers to operate in
Iraq, spurned a U.N. deal that would allow him to sell $1.6
billion in oil to finance food and humanitarian aid, and
rejected a new U.N.-demarcated border with Kuwait. He has even
stepped up operations against Shi`ite Muslim rebels in the
south. In Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq, gun,
grenade and car-bomb attacks have targeted U.N. guards, one of
whom was killed. Saddam blames the Kurds, but the U.N. rejects
that claim and says he is responsible for protecting its
personnel in any case.
Saddam's taunts are aimed at eroding the coalition's
resolve. But Western officials insist they are having the
opposite effect. They say Saddam's gamble that Europe is too
distracted by the Yugoslav quagmire and President Bush too
immobilized by his tough re-election fight to risk military
action is a grave miscalculation. "If Saddam does not quickly
comply with U.N. demands," says a senior British diplomat, "an
attack is almost certainly on. We are not going to wait long."