U.N. Ignores Iraqi Claim Bush Sought Military Clash

UNITED NATIONS — Ignoring a claim by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s emissary that President Bush had tried to provoke a military clash to win votes during the last election campaign, the Security Council refused Tuesday to ease the extensive economic sanctions that keep Iraq out of all normal trade.

The claim by the emissary, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz, came during a defiant and vitriolic speech in which he insisted that Iraq had done all that it reasonably could to satisfy provisions of the U.N. resolutions that ended the Persian Gulf War. This reality, according to Aziz, was distorted by the Bush Administration. He described Iraq as a victim of American policies driven by a thirst for oil and a thirst for votes.

But this notion was rejected by the Security Council.

In a closed meeting, the 15 ambassadors decided to keep all sanctions in place against Iraq.

Ambassador Andre Erdos of Hungary, this month’s council president, told reporters that Aziz’s speeches over the last two days had failed to show Iraq’s “willingness to comply” with U.N. resolutions and had “reconfirmed our fears” that Iraq was trying to reassert its sovereignty in defiance of the resolutions.

In his most dramatic rhetoric, Aziz said that the Bush Administration had persuaded the council to set up a “no-fly” zone in southern Iraq, not to protect the Shiite Muslim rebels from Iraqi army attack but to provoke Hussein into military action. “It was an attempt to create a crisis that would lead to a military clash during an electoral campaign,” he said.

This bitter accusation received no response in the council from U.S. Ambassador Edward J. Perkins.

But Aziz’s speech, his second to the Security Council in two days, did elicit a stubborn and unanimous statement from the council’s 15 ambassadors that “the government of Iraq has not yet complied fully and unconditionally with its obligations.” The council warned Iraq that it “must do so and must immediately take the appropriate actions in this regard.”

The council also castigated Aziz for his “baseless threats, allegations and attacks” and deplored his failure to indicate “how the government of Iraq intends to comply with the resolutions of the council.”

The performance of Aziz, flying from Baghdad to New York to antagonize the council with his intransigence, puzzled many U.N. diplomats, who could not fathom why Hussein had sought this confrontation. The United Nations had invited Aziz only after being asked to do so by the Iraqi government.

Speaking to reporters after the session, Aziz said that the council’s refusal to remove sanctions had been “prepared before my arrival . . . before even listening to me.”

Asked if he anticipated a better reception for the Iraqi position once the Clinton Administration takes over in Washington, Aziz replied, “I simply don’t know what are the intentions of the new Administration.” But he said he hoped “the atmosphere will provide better understanding.”