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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 6, 1993                   TAG: 9307060013
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BAGHDAD, IRAQ                                LENGTH: Medium

UN TEAM DEPARTS AFTER IRAQ STANDOFF

A U.N. team left Monday after trying for more than a month to persuade Iraq to allow surveillance cameras at two former missile test sites, increasing anxiety in Baghdad about another punitive attack.

The departure worsened Iraq's latest standoff with the United Nations, just eight days after U.S. missiles blasted Iraq's intelligence headquarters in retaliation for alleged Iraqi complicity in a plot to murder former President Bush.

Saddam's government did not comment on the situation, but a newspaper with close ties to the government called the departure a "dirty trick."

Sadi Mahdi Salih, speaker of the Iraqi parliament, also announced that an emergency assembly meeting will be held Wednesday, according to an Iraqi radio report monitored by the BBC.

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Monday visited the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service and met with its director, Staff Lieut.-Gen. Sabir Abd-al-Aziz al-Duri. It was not clear if this facility is the complex that was the target of the June 27 missile attack.

Nikita Smidovich, a Russian, left with his inspection team after a last, fruitless round of talks with the Iraqis.

"Iraq has to assess the decision of the Security Council which qualifies this position of Iraq as a material breach" of U.N. conditions imposed under the Gulf War cease-fire, Smidovich said before flying to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution last month saying there would be "serious consequences" for Iraq if Saddam's government continued to reject the cameras.

The U.N. commission overseeing the destruction of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs and long-range missiles wants to install cameras to monitor two former missile test sites, to ensure that Iraq doesn't resume tests of medium- or long-range missiles.

Baghdad appeared calm, but there was growing fear of an attack by the Gulf War allies.

In a confrontation earlier this year over Iraq's refusal to allow U.N. inspection flights, U.S. forces fired about 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles Jan. 17 at a Baghdad factory linked to Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has said he hopes that U.N.-Iraq oil talks beginning Wednesday in New York will offer a chance to reduce tensions.

by CNB