Iraq: Warheads? What Warheads?

Iraq has begun talks in an attempt to convince the United Nations it has destroyed all its warheads, while the ruling party's newspaper demanded the chief weapons inspector be fired.

Iraq will produce documents to show all warheads have been destroyed, says Hussam Mohammed Amin, director-general of the Iraqi monitoring committee that works with the U.N. inspector.

Russian Nikita Smidovic, who leads a team of 23 U.N. weapons experts, made no comment as he entered the so-called technical evaluation talks with Iraqi officials.

A government statement, meanwhile, said a meeting Saturday between Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook produced only more falsehoods about Iraq's weapons programs.

"They have repeated their claims that Iraq still has the ability to produce prohibited weapons without introducing at least one shred of evidence," said an Information Ministry statement carried on the official Iraqi News Agency.

"It is clear that the dark propaganda aims at starting a new military attack against Iraq," the statement said. The U.S. has threatened such a strike.

Cook said at a news conference with Albright that Britain was drafting a new Security Council resolution to try and force Iraq into line.

He said the objective was "to find as tough a resolution as is possible, making it clear that Saddam is in breach of his obligations and the authority of the Security Council is on the line here."

Russia, which opposes a military strike, says envoy Viktor Posuvalyuk is leaving for Baghdad today to try again to find a political solution. His visit last week produced no compromise.

Turkey is reluctant to allow its bases to be used as launching pads for U.S. military operations against Iraq. Turkey's foreign minister, Ismail Cem, says he has offered to help mediate an end to the impasse.

Iraq has long said it eliminated the weapons in question, but U.N. weapons inspectors question whether Iraq still has warheads armed with chemical agents.

Iraq and chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler agreed on the technical evaluation talks as a way to review the work of the arms inspectors. But he has said he does not think Iraq will get what it wants from the meetings: certification that it has destroyed its warheads. That would be a first step toward having U.N. sanctions lifted.

The Security Council has said the sanctions, imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, will not be lifted until inspectors certify that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.

The Al-Thawra daily, the newspaper of the ruling Baath Party, urged the U.N. General Assembly to fire Butler over a recent interview in which he said Iraq had enough weapons to "blow away Tel Aviv, or whatever."

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai says the nation is readying for any Iraqi attack with nonconventional weapons and xpects early word on any U.S. strike.

Iraq also launched a program Sunday to give military training to its citizens to protect the country in the event of a U.S. strike. Iraq says it has a million volunteers, but it was unclear how citizens armed with automatic rifles and grenades would defend against U.S. precision-guided missiles.

Written by Waiel Faleh ©1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed