Russia Mum on Iraqi Weapons Deal

Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday it's up to the United Nations to investigate reported Russian negotiations to sell equipment to Iraq that could be used to develop biological weapons.

Cohen said he could neither confirm nor deny a report by The Washington Post Thursday that U.N. weapons inspectors found a document prepared by Iraqi officials in 1995 that discussed negotiations leading to a multimillion dollar deal for such equipment. It said the U.N. asked Russia for an explanation six weeks ago but has not heard back.

"I don't have any basis to either confirm or contradict that particular story," Cohen said Thursday in Moscow, where he is meeting with Russian officials about the standoff with Iraq.

"That's something that the United Nations will have to determine. Hopefully, the Russian authorities will be very forthcoming on this issue," he said.

"One of the difficulties in dealing with biological weapons and chemical weapons is some of the same equipment has what we call a dual-use capability, that what can be used to make fertilizer can also be used to make chemical weapons," he said.

Quoting anonymous sources, the newspaper said one of the items sought by Iraq was a 5,000-liter fermentation tank designed to produce single-cell protein that could be used for either brewing animal feed or deadly germs for use in war. "It's dual-purpose equipment," one source told the Post. "That's exactly what you would need for a large-scale biological equipment."

The newspaper said the Iraqi officials who participated in the negotiations with Moscow were from Al Hakam, a site where Iraq has admitted producing tons of anthrax and botulinum toxin, both chemical warfare agents.

The Interfax news agency reported Thursday that the Russian Foreign Ministry denied the media accounts.

"The Russian government did not conclude any agreements with Iraq, and there have been no deliveries," the agency quoted an unidentified ministry official as saying.

"Moscow's contribution to the development of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is practically nil," the agency quoted the official as saying. "Equipment for the development of such weapons was delivered to Iraq mainly from Western Europe - the Germans, Austrians, and Swiss in particular," he said.

The Post said U.N. officials are uncertain whether the fermentation vessel was ever delivered. If consummated, the deal would have violated a U.N.-authorized embargo on the sale of such equipment to Iraq, the sources said.

The agreement apparently was written in July 1995, six months after the U.N. questioned Iraq's purchase of a large quantity of biological growth material.

In April 1995, U.N. officials privately told Russian diplomats they were suspicious that a similar single-cell protein plant at Al Hakam migt be the center of Iraq's germ warfare program, the newspaper said.

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