BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq on Saturday rejected a new U.N. plan to restart weapons inspections, saying it was a no-go until the Security Council lifts the trade sanctions imposed nearly 10 years ago.
Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told reporters the government was not impressed by the U.N. Security Council's approval Thursday of the plan drawn up by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix."Any resolution which does not meet Iraq's legitimate rights in removing the embargo and denouncing aggression (against Baghdad) is not acceptable," he said, referring to the U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and the subsequent U.S. and British airstrikes.
While some Iraqi officials have left open the possibility of compromise over the bid to revive weapons inspections, Aziz said he did not know of any member of the Iraqi leadership who would permit them.
The council's approval of Blix's plan for a new weapons inspectorate, called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, showed that world powers remain determined to restart inspections.
U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in December 1998 ahead of the airstrikes, launched to punish Iraq for allegedly failing to cooperate with the inspectors.
The sanctions can be lifted only when the inspectors inform the Security Council that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and the means to produce them. Baghdad says it has already done so.
"I would like to reconfirm what we have said before -- that U.S. and British efforts to impose a new unfair resolution will never succeed," Aziz said.
He dismissed as "trickery" the December resolution that set up the new inspection commission and offered Iraq the possibility of suspending sanctions in return for its cooperation.
"I have never hinted that Iraq will deal with this resolution. ... It is a treacherous resolution with which we cannot cooperate," Aziz said.
The plan drawn up by Blix of Sweden addresses some of Iraq's grievances about the former U.N. weapons inspectorate, known as UNSCOM. The plan stresses that arms experts will work for the United Nations rather than any government.
Blix made it clear the new inspectors will come from all around the world and will be paid by the United Nations. They will not be volunteers with obligations to member governments.
Blix also stressed that intelligence gathered by inspectors must remain with the agency and be used only for its key disarmament work.
The chief inspector clearly does not want his team to be tainted by the allegations that stung UNSCOM: that weapons inspectors spied on Iraq on behalf of the United States.