VIENNA, Austria — The United Nations reached a deal Tuesday with Iraq on terms for the resumption of weapons inspections for the first time since 1998 — except at Saddam Hussein’s presidential palaces — but the Bush administration immediately rejected the arrangement and demanded a stronger U.N. resolution before the inspectors’ return.
The agreement announced Tuesday by Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, who concluded two days of negotiations here with Iraqi officials, calls for the return of the first inspection team as early as Oct. 19. But Secretary of State Colin Powell said the administration would oppose any inspections that take place under the old rules and urged the U.N. Security Council to pass a tough new resolution before the inspectors enter Baghdad.
“Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the United States will continue to pursue a new U.N. resolution with the Security Council,” Powell said in Washington. “We do not believe that (the inspections teams) should go back in under the old set of resolutions and under the old inspection regime. And therefore, we do not believe they should go in until they have new instructions in the form of a new resolution.”
Increasing the pressure on Iraq further still, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer all but dared the Iraqi opposition to assassinate Hussein or expel him from the country. Asked at a news conference about the cost of a U.S. invasion, Fleischer noted that Bush has not decided on such an action.
However, Fleischer added: “I can only say that the cost of a one-way ticket is substantially less than (a U.S. invasion). The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less than that. The cost of war is more than that. But there are many options that the president hopes the world and people of Iraq will exercise themselves of that gets rid of the threat.”
Asked to clarify whether the U.S. advocated Hussein’s assassination, Fleischer replied, “Regime change is welcome in whatever form that
it takes.”
The deal with Iraq and Washington’s response touched off fresh debate Tuesday over a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that was being circulated at U.N. headquarters in New York. A meeting Tuesday of the five permanent council members to discuss terms for a new Iraq resolution ended without agreement.
The U.S.-drafted resolution would, among other things, delay entry of inspections teams until Iraq has provided a full accounting of its weapons of mass destruction — presumably postponing the inspectors’ return. It would also authorize any member nations to “use all necessary means” if Baghdad fails to comply with any of the resolution’s demands.
Blix is expected to report Thursday to the Security Council on the new agreement reached with Iraq.