Stewart Stogel
Friday, Oct. 4, 2002

Arab diplomatic sources say that Baghdad will drop its objections to unfettered U.N. inspections of presidential sites if the Bush administration drops its insistence on an automatic trigger to use force against Iraq.

The special status of so-called "presidential sites" has been a subject of controversy since U.N. chief Kofi Annan reached a "memo of understanding" with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in February 1998.

The memo excluded so-called "presidential sites" (more than 1,000 buildings) from surprise inspections.

"It's an interesting offer, if it is made," said a State Department source.

The revelation came after a series of meetings between U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El Baradei, and the U.N. Security Council in New York.

The closed-door meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was followed by a second meeting later in the day between Blix and the five permanent members of the Security Council (U.S., U.K., France, Russia and China).

Acting U.S. Ambassador Jim Cunningham called the meetings with Blix and El Baradei "good" and "commended" them on their recent discussions with the Iraqis in Vienna.

Cunningham cautioned that the efforts in Vienna "were based on the existing terms of reference and that those terms of reference aren't good enough to get the job done [for Washington.]"

Blix, who previously selected Oct. 19 as the date for U.N. inspectors to arrive in Iraq, may now put the arrival "on hold" temporarily, according to U.S. sources.

Washington has publicly stated that it would seek "to block" any U.N. inspections until new guidelines are agreed upon in the Security Council.

Blix, however, has not been told to halt his preparations, according to U.N. sources.

The U.S. would like to see the council adopt a new resolution and still have the U.N. attempt to fly into Iraq on Oct. 19, daring Baghdad to block the inspection group.

"It is a very plausible scenario, but we are not quite there yet," confided one U.S. diplomat in New York.

Blix and El Baradei travel to Washington today to confer with Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Hatfill Snubbed

U.N. sources also confirm that Dr. Steven Hatfill, the recently fired microbiologist from Louisiana State University who is considered by the FBI a "person of interest" in last year's anthrax attacks, and who is on the U.N.'s list of biological weapons inspectors, will not be going to Iraq anytime soon.

"We do not need that kind of publicity. We have enough to worry about," confided a U.N. official.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Bush Administration

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Saddam Hussein/Iraq

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Editor's note:
Saddam Hussein’s race to make a nuclear bomb