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Iraq delays expulsion of U.S. weapons inspectors
Latest developments: November 4, 1997
Web posted at: 3:12 p.m. EST (2012 GMT)BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq on Tuesday agreed not to expel U.S. weapons inspectors until a three-man U.N. delegation completes its mission in Baghdad.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the extension was to allow talks aimed at resolving the standoff to take place between Iraq and a mediation team sent by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Iraq originally wanted all U.S. weapons inspectors out of the country by Wednesday, but Annan had urged Baghdad to delay that ultimatum.
Annan told reporters the three-member U.N. mediation team would "discuss with the Iraqi authorities the need for them to rescind the decision they have taken so that we do not create unnecessary escalation."
U.S. warns Iraq over U-2 flights
United States Defense Secretary William Cohen on Tuesday reaffirmed that U-2 surveillance flights over Iraq would continue, and he warned Baghdad of "serious consequences" should Iraq try to follow through on its threat to shoot them down.
"We believe that the U-2 flights should go forward," Cohen said. "Should there be any effort to either attack that aircraft of put it into any danger, we would view that as a very grave matter with serious consequences."
He did not say when the next U-2 flights were planned, but observers said they were likely to go ahead on Thursday.
The U-2 reconnaissance planes fly at an altitude of about 60,000 feet, within range of Iraqi missiles.
U.N.'s Nils Carlstrom on Iraq turning inspectors back again Tuesday 
264K/23 sec. AIFF or WAV sound Iraq says the surveillance missions serve U.S. intelligence, and Baghdad has repeatedly called for the U-2 flights to be halted.
U-2 planes, based in Saudi Arabia, have for years provided information to U.N. teams seeking to find and neutralize Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
France, Russia urge Iraqi compliance
Cohen's warning came after Iraq threatened to shoot down the planes, and after Iraqi authorities Tuesday again barred U.S. weapons inspectors serving with a special U.N. team from carrying out their mission for a third consecutive day.
France and Russia called on Iraq to de-escalate tension with the United Nations and allow the U.N. weapons inspections to go ahead unhindered.
In a statement issued in Paris, the two Security Council members said it was unacceptable that Iraq had banned U.S. weapons inspectors from serving on the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
"France and Russia call on the Iraqi authorities to renounce this decision so the Special Commission can continue to carry out its mandate," the statement said. "That would constitute a clear signal of a de-escalation of tension."
The United Nations has said that both UNSCOM and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must attest to Iraqi compliance with U.N. demands before the Security Council will lift the stringent sanctions it imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
IAEA director Hans Blix said Tuesday that his agency was sure Saddam Hussein's regime had no remaining infrastructure for nuclear weapons production after six years of on-site inspections.
But Security Council members were split over how to view this, with the United States and Britain seeking more proof that Iraq's nuclear program was finished than France, Russia and China have demanded.
Correspondent Ben Wedeman, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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- Saddam Hussein - Iraqi President
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- United Nations Home Page
- International Atomic Energy Agency
- Iraq - ArabNet
- Iraq - Consular Information Sheet - U.S. State Dept.
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