BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.N. inspectors searching suspected weapons sites in Iraq will not be allowed to enter an office of the ruling Baath Party they were denied access to earlier, a party official said Thursday.
U.N. inspectors have insisted they have the right under U.N. resolutions to enter any site in Iraq without conditions, and the United States and Britain have threatened military action if Iraq does not comply.The two countries have left an armada in the Persian Gulf to ensure that Iraq abides by its promise to cooperate with weapons inspections.
However, a Baath Party leader, Latif Nsayyif Jassim told reporters Thursday the inspectors would not be allowed inside the office.
"They won't enter," Jassim told a news conference at the office in Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood. "You will not find inside this office any materials related to what they are looking for."
The office is inside a two-story stucco building behind black gates, and has no sign outside indicating it is an office of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's party, although there is an emblem of the party over the door.
Jassim -- a former information minister who is the Baath Party chief in Baghdad -- insisted the office was private property, and it was his decision whether anyone could enter. He said the party works on political matters and not on anything related to the inspectors' work.
"My base is protected, and no one can enter except a party member or an Iraqi national," he said.
On Wednesday, a team of 12 inspectors was turned back when it tried to enter the office.
The inspectors left after an Iraqi official demanded they first provide a written declaration "on the material and items" they sought, the official Iraqi News Agency said. The official was not identified by name.
Later Wednesday, however, an Iraqi official suggested the Iraqi escorts had made a mistake in declaring the site sensitive.
The United States, which has threatened military action during two previous standoffs between Iraq and U.N. inspectors this year, was cautious.
"As the president has said, if UNSCOM cannot do its job effectively, we remain poised to act," David Leavy, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said Wednesday. He declined to say what would trigger U.S. military action.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking in Paris after a meeting with President Jacques Chirac, said she and the French leader "agreed that it is essential for Saddam Hussein to cooperate with UNSCOM." She said she was pleased that "in the last year, the coalition has been very strong."
In Britain, which also has threatened military action, a Foreign Office spokesman said Thursday that "all problems over inspection are a serious concern."
He added: "Iraq has undertaken to provide full cooperation. Its response so far is not, in our view, consistent with full cooperation."
Jassim's statements Thursday came just hours after a full contingent of inspectors resumed searches of suspected weapons sites.
"Everyone's gone out today, attempting to carry on their normal activities," said Caroline Cross, the inspectors' spokeswoman. "We're just carrying on with our scheduled activities."
Cross said the teams had made no changes in their routine.
"There is no reason why we should stop," she said. But she declined to say whether teams would try to reenter the site.
Iraqi newspapers today carried the official agency report on the incident. But surprisingly, no newspaper mentioned it in editorials.