Word: standoff
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Gulf Crisis: No Way Out? Things are looking dismal in Iraq as the Chief Weapons inspector leaves. Is there any end to this standoff...
BAGHDAD: Chief U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler says there?s no way out of the standoff over Iraq?s weapons of mass destruction and its refusal to grant UNSCOM access to presidential sites. But don?t expect any military action as a result, says TIME correspondent William Dowell...
...Butler and Aziz, the first time the two sides have sat down to talk weapons since last month's standoff is progress in itself. The U.N. chief says we'll know in the next couple of days whether Iraq will consent to having its 60-odd palatial compounds inspected. Peace in the Gulf ? just in time for the holidays...
Call it diplomacy on the fly. By expelling the inspectors two weeks ago, Saddam had sparked the tensest standoff with the U.S. since the Gulf War. President Clinton had threatened a massive attack against Iraq, but only Britain was willing to go along with it. The other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--Russia, France and China--opposed military action, as did every country in the Middle East. That left diplomacy, which the White House began intensely two weekends ago when Clinton telephoned Russian President Boris Yeltsin to give him the green light to find...
...Still, nobody is pushing for a confrontation yet. "Let's take this one step at a time," said National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, adding that the inspectors should be allowed to decide their own timetable. With the three-week standoff still fresh in everyone's memory and the Russian-brokered deal that ended it still tenuous, the U.S. isn't about to strong-arm its way into these palaces ? even if they do constitute a suspiciously large amount of Iraqi real estate...