Word: unscom
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...issue of halting nuclear inspections divided the U.S. and Britain from France, Russia and China: ?Even though everyone agrees there?s no nuclear threat, the U.S. doesn?t want to stop nuclear inspections for fear that it might create pressure for UNSCOM to wrap up biowarfare inspections,? says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell...
...vision of "light at the end of the tunnel" is going to be shared by their 15 adjudicators, they have another think coming. "I predict there will be no agreement to anything being done on sanctions," said British ambassador Sir John Weston. The reason: Richard Butler's claim that UNSCOM has made "virtually no progress" in recent weapons inspections. Even the Russians, who are floating a resolution that would muzzle UNSCOM, balked at the idea of lifting the embargo itself...
...YORK: UNSCOM chief Richard Butler could be forgiven for feeling a little like Ken Starr: even though his investigation is not complete, it could still be buried in the shifting sands of politics. U.N. inspectors today finished searching Saddam Hussein?s disputed presidential sites, and came up empty-handed. ?They weren?t expecting to find anything; they were simply establishing their right to search those sites,? says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. ?Things are on track right now, although UNSCOM staff members privately expect further confrontation with Iraq some time down the road, because the Iraqis are still playing...
...Lifting sanctions, however, won?t be decided by UNSCOM. ?You?re never going to be 100 percent certain there are no weapons of mass destruction,? says Dowell. ?Ending sanctions will be a political decision, dependent largely on the U.S. changing its Iraq policy.? When that happens, Butler could always ask Starr for a job -- after all, getting into the White House would be child?s play for a man who forced his way into Saddam?s palaces...
...quite. The unwieldy convoy hardly constitutes a rapid response team, and Iraqi officials had been notified of the inspection ahead of time. UNSCOM is keeping its expectations low for these early ?baseline? visits. Whether they will turn up anything in future trips remains to be seen. More important to Iraq is how many trips it will take before Baghdad is granted a clean bill of health. One crumb of comfort for the Iraqis: Richard Butler, the belligerent UNSCOM chief, is being rotated out as the inspections begin...