Just weeks after it went to the brink of military action against Iraq, the United States now appears willing to go along with a consensus on the U.N. Security Council and grant a comprehensive review of the sanctions against Saddam Hussein, even if he has not cooperated fully with arms inspectors, diplomats say.
For months, Washington has insisted that Iraq must show full cooperation with arms inspections before Baghdad can have any hope of such a review. But now, while Iraq is still far from total compliance, both the Iraqis and their strongest critics have apparently decided that there is more to gain in staging a review than in igniting a new confrontation.Iraq has doggedly pursued the idea of a review in hopes that it will accelerate the lifting of a crippling oil embargo. On Sunday, the official Iraqi press repeated the demand that the review begin soon, since inspectors have been back at work on routine tasks in Iraq for more than two weeks. They had been idled for months by Iraqi noncooperation.
On the other side, the United States and Britain believe that a review will prove yet again that Iraq still has much to answer for about its banned weapons programs. Such an outcome would strengthen the U.S. policy of keeping sanctions in place indefinitely.
The decision to authorize the review could come as early as next week, when Richard Butler, the executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission, which has been charged with disarming Iraq, reports to the council about recent inspections. Diplomats say that the review would then probably begin in January, although details have yet to be decided.
The review would be the first of its kind and be designed to look at all relevant resolutions and requirements imposed on Iraq since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.