SADDAM STIRS IRE OF U.N.

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992                   TAG: 9202290192
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                  LENGTH: Medium
SADDAM STIRS IRE OF U.N.
The United Nations Security Council condemned Saddam Hussein's flagrant defiance Friday, as Iraq refused to allow the destruction of ballistic missile equipment pending the dispatch of a high-level Iraqi government mission to the United Nations.
Iraq's government, facing a Friday afternoon deadline to respond to the council, delivered a letter that U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering characterized as "seven pages of `no' " to U.N. demands that the Iraqis let inspectors destroy machinery used to assemble Scud missiles.
In a sharply worded statement read by Pickering, the council declared Iraq's letter unacceptable.
The council "deplored and condemned" continued defiance of U.N. resolutions. Pickering said council members want the Iraqi delegation to come to New York "without further delay." Repeating earlier warnings by the council, he said that the Iraqi government "must be aware of serious consequences" if it continues to refuse to comply.
Pickering, the council president this month, read the statement aloud in an open session. The statement told the Iraqis they did not have the option to bargain with inspectors of the U.N. special commission over which materiel should be destroyed.
Iraq's latest moves followed a period of intransigence and set the stage for a likely impasse next month, when Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz will lead a delegation planning to plead Iraqi's case to the council. Aziz has not set a firm date for his proposed U.N. visit.
The Iraqis have made clear in recent letters and discussions that they want the council to start easing economic sanctions, give up plans to monitor Iraq's weapons programs indefinitely and allow Iraq to keep materials, such as the Scud-manufacturing equipment, for supposed peaceful uses.
All three requests are sure to be rejected.
But the prospects for further impasse raised the question of what action the council could take to force the Iraqis to comply with all U.N. resolutions. In the past, Iraqi defiance has melted in the face of threats of renewed military action. But the Iraqis now may believe that such an attack is less likely during an American presidential election campaign.
Asked about a military strike, Pickering repeated the reply he has made to such questions for many weeks: "No option has been ruled in or ruled out."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB