Word: unscom
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Dates: during 1997-1997
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BAGHDAD: It?s business as usual for the U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq today. "We will start our inspections as soon as possible," Maj. Gen. Nils Carlstrom, head of the UNSCOM monitoring office, said as his team arrived from Bahrain. Iraqis will no doubt be pleased to learn that there are only four American inspectors returning, as opposed to the six who left. UNSCOM chair Richard Butler says this is "part of the normal rotation...
...YORK: The game has changed in the Gulf, with U.N. arms inspectors heading back to Baghdad on Friday, following Iraq's acceptance of a deal brokered by Russia. The U.S. continues to monitor the situation closely, unconvinced that Saddam Hussein will allow UNSCOM unrestricted access to strategic sites - and Washington maintained its military build-up in the region in case he doesn...
...pattern in negotiated deals, all sides today proclaimed victory. The answer to whether anything substantial has changed will emerge in the coming weeks as UNSCOM gets back to work. How did the Russians get Iraq to back down? "The Russians believed the important thing was not to punish Iraq, but to get UNSCOM back in business," says TIME correspondent William Dowell. "After all, UNSCOM has destroyed more Iraqi weapons than were destroyed in the entire Gulf...
...While no formal undertakings appear to have been given to Iraq on the composition of UNSCOM or on the lifting of sanctions, Dowell believes there is a greater sensitivity now to Baghdad's concerns. "There is also a growing view that sanctions may not be the best way to keep Iraq under control. There's a concern that sanctions are not doing away with Saddam but are weakening Iraq's middle class, which could have disastrous long-term consequences...
...expect a bleary-eyed Albright to be waving a peace agreement in the Geneva dawn. But if the carrot of an end to sanctions has indeed convinced Baghdad to allow UNSCOM to continue its work, the Iraq crisis may yet be resolved without any missiles being launched...