Gore blames Bush for standoff, A2.Iraq stepped up its attacks on the United Nations and gulf war cease-fire terms Monday, and its Defense Ministry newspaper said the world body had capitulated to Baghdad's demands.
As a "neutral" team of U.N. weapons inspectors headed to Iraq, President Saddam Hussein's press secretary was quoted as saying the cease-fire terms were written by scoundrels."We owe nothing to the Security Council," Abduljabbar Mohsen wrote in the ruling Baath Party newspaper al-Thawra, in his second such attack in three days.
Al-Qadissyah, the Defense Ministry newspaper, hailed the deal allowing inspection of the Agri-cul-ture Ministry as a victory for Iraq. "Our conditions to inspect the ministry (are) heeded," it proclaimed.
In Washington, President Bush claimed victory on the United Nations' behalf.
"Saddam has bent to the will of the United Nations," Bush said. But the head of the inspection effort, Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus, told BBC television he was pessimistic about finding anything of value in the ministry.
Iraq's agreement to let U.N. officials into the building ended a confrontation with the West that had threatened to escalate into military action.
The new inspection team, headed by a German, excludes nationals of countries that took part in the war over Kuwait. Two Americans will be part of the overall team but will not enter the ministry.
"The real test of (Saddam's) behavior will be in future U.N. inspections," Bush said at the White House Sunday.
"Behavior along the lines we have just witnessed will not be tolerated," said Bush, who referred to Saddam as "the bully, the dictator, the brutal merchant of death."
Bush read a catalog of broken or unfilled promises that Iraq made when it sued for peace in 1991 to end the gulf war.
On Saturday, Mohsen lashed out at the U.N. inspectors, branding them murderers.
An inspection team that left Iraq last week had mounted an 18-day vigil outside the ministry they were barred from entering to search for weapons documents. The inspectors were the target of numerous street demonstrations.