| The United States and Britain accuse Iraq
of concealing weapons of mass destruction and have massed tens of thousands
of troops in the region, poised for a possible invasion of Iraq.
U.N. inspectors returned to Iraq in November
after a four-year gap under a new, tougher Security Council resolution.
The inspectors are trying to verify Iraq's claims that it no longer holds
banned weapons.
With so much riding on U.N. reports, Russia's
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned Thursday that too much pressure was
being placed on the inspectors to provide a pretext for war. He appealed
to Baghdad to provide full cooperation and show "maximum openness."
"Strong pressure is being exerted on international
inspectors to provoke them to discontinue their operations in Iraq, as
happened in 1998, or to pressure them into coming up with assessments that
would justify the use of force," Ivanov told reporters in Moscow.
He did not identify the source of the pressure,
but the United States and Britain have been urging the inspectors to lay
down "benchmarks" to measure Iraqi compliance.
On Thursday, U.N. weapons inspectors taking
inventory of banned Al Samoud 2 missiles and parts returned to facilities
involved in the rocket's production. Diplomats said chief inspector Hans
Blix would likely demand Iraq destroy the weapons.
The missiles, a key part of Iraq's arsenal,
tested above the 94-mile range limit imposed by U.N. resolutions after
the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq says the missiles flew so far in tests only because
they weren't loaded down with guidance and control systems.
The inspectors went Thursday to the Ibn
al-Haithem facility, just north of Baghdad, which produces missile parts,
and the Al Samoud Factory, which makes liquid-propellant engines for the
missiles, according to Iraq's Information Ministry.
They also visited the Al Quds Company,
involved in explosives research and development, and the Al Basil Company,
which makes chemicals.
Under the U.N. resolutions, the inspectors
can order the missiles destroyed or rendered harmless. But U.N. sources
and diplomats said Wednesday on condition of anonymity that Blix would
likely send a letter to Iraq in coming days asking it destroy all Al Samoud
2s.
Destroying the missiles would be difficult
for Saddam, given the looming threat of war. However, his enemies could
use a refusal as an argument for war.
On Feb. 14, chief inspector Blix and Mohamed
ElBaradei, head of the U.N. nuclear control agency, told the Security Council
that they detected some improvement in cooperation on the part of Saddam's
government.
But Blix also said inspectors found that
the Al Samoud 2 exceeded the permitted range and chastised Iraq for not
giving a full accounting of chemical and biological weapons programs.
Britain's U.N. ambassador said his government
will probably introduce a new draft resolution within days that will contain
a deadline for Baghdad to show it is actively cooperating with weapons
inspections.
Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock told The Associated
Press that he expected debate on the text to extend past March 1, when
Blix is to issue his next report.
In other developments on Thursday:
-Turkish government minister Ali Babacan
said his country and the United States would resolve their deadlock over
deployment of U.S. troops in Turkey "within the coming days." But Turkey's
top politician, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted as saying the timing of
a Turkish decision depended on the United States accepting Turkey's demands
for aid.
- A U.S.-led assault on Iraq could push
the price of oil on international markets to unprecedented levels and fuel
a worldwide wave of terrorism, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
said.
- Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak warned
that a war against Iraq will ignite "a gigantic fire" of revenge attacks
by terrorists, but to avert conflict, Saddam must cooperate "100 percent"
with U.N. inspectors.
- An Arab League summit was called for
March 1 in Cairo to try to forge a common Arab position in the crisis.
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