The United States has been preparing for possible military action against Iraq since last fall, when Saddam Hussein ordered the expulsion of Americans on the weapons-inspection teams, accusing them of acting as spies. Americans were readmitted after the intervention of Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, but the crisis flared anew when Iraq blocked access to the presidential sites, three in Baghdad and five in outlying cities. Iraq says the presidential sites consist of nothing more sinister than palaces and villas for government officials and their guests. The government also insists that it has complied fully with U.N. resolutions mandating destruction of programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The U.N. commission has said it suspects that Iraq is hiding elements of its weapons programs, possibly in the palace compounds.
Important principles are also at stake.
Iraqi officials, for their part, consider the presidential compounds to be symbols of national sovereignty that should not be subject to snooping by uninvited foreign guests. Under a compromise plan brokered by Russia and France, Iraq would have agreed to permit the inspectors to visit the compounds, but only in the company of diplomatic escorts and only for a period of 60 days, after which they would not be permitted to return to the sites. A U.N. survey team found this month that the sites cover a total area of about 12.6 square miles, suggesting that they are much smaller than the vast complexes described by Clinton and other senior U.S. officials. The United States and Britain objected to the time limit and the ban on return visits, with the result that they were not included in negotiating guidelines that Annan carried with him to Baghdad from New York. An administration official said in Washington that Clinton officials had only a sketchy understanding of the Annan talks.