PRESS BRIEFING BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL

UNITED NATIONS

September 19, 2002

Excerpts

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**Iraq

The Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Mission for Iraq, Hans Blix, will brief members of the Security Council in a closed meeting this afternoon beginning at 4 p.m.

Blix joined the Secretary-General in his meeting yesterday afternoon with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, at which the Secretary-General stressed the need for Iraq to provide full and unconditional cooperation to the United Nations inspectors and reaffirmed his confidence in Blix's professionalism and impartiality.

Blix told the Foreign Minister that he wished to get off to a "flying start" and looked forward to finalizing the practical arrangements for inspections when they next meet in Vienna starting 30 September.

**Statement on the Middle East

The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman concerning events in the Middle East.

"The Secretary-General is appalled by the recent acts of violence in the Middle East that have pierced a period of relative calm.  He strongly reiterates the statement of the Quartet on 17 September calling for an end to violence and terror and deploring and condemning such acts as morally repugnant.  He hopes that in the period after the two suicide attacks on Israelis and the bomb planted at a Palestinian school over the past three days the parties will act with restraint.

"The Secretary-General believes that only a comprehensive solution developed through a process that addresses political, security, humanitarian and economic issues in parallel can ensure real security for the parties.  The commitment of the parties to the roadmap agreed at the recent meeting of the Quartet coupled with an effective Quartet monitoring mechanism remains the best path to that solution."

**Security Council

Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, briefed the Security Council in an open meeting this morning before Council members went into consultations on the same agenda item.

He highlighted the two most pressing challenges that the Afghan people are facing:  security and recovery.  He warned that if we fail to address these, "fragmentation will become more entrenched, extremism will rise, and then foreign countries, groups or individuals may be drawn once again into the fray".

He appealed to the international community to provide "committed, sustained and generous support".  He then outlined areas where international funding was mostly needed, including employment-generation, introduction of a new currency and development of the capacity of governing.

On security, Brahimi reminded the members of the proliferation of local conflicts and violence, adding that:  "in the past few days there have been positive developments in these troublesome areas".

In concluding his speech, he underscored that time was of the essence and he appealed to the international community to "turn its undoubted commitment to Afghanistan into more forceful action". 

At 3:30 this afternoon, the Security Council has scheduled a meeting with troop-contributing countries to the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And then, also today before that at 3 p.m., there is a meeting of the Security Council Committee overseeing sanctions against Usama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda organization, the Taliban and their associates to discuss further the report by the expert group monitoring the implementation of those sanctions.  That meeting will take place in Conference Room 7.

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**Questions and Answers

Question:  If Iraq has no conditions about inspectors, why is it so difficult to send the first team right away?  Who gives the authorization?  The Security Council?  The Secretary-General?  Blix?

Spokesman:  First of all, I don't speak for Hans Blix, but I will try to, as accurately as I can, represent his views. 

He feels that unless the basic understandings on the practical arrangements for the inspections are reached before he goes there, it's inviting trouble.  So he wants to work out with Iraq all the practical details for these inspections.  And as we've already told you, his team and the Iraqi team will meet in Vienna starting on 30 September and at that session -- I don't know how long it will last -- Mr. Blix has said that he wants to get off to a flying start.  As quickly as possible, they will finalize those arrangements, after which, they will send people to Iraq.  Before they can send inspectors, they really just have to send people to reopen their offices, their laboratories, replace computers if they need replacing.  Basically get the infrastructure in place before the inspectors can go. 

All of that can be done reasonably quickly.  I can't tell you exactly how quickly.  As for the relationship between those inspections and the Security Council, Mr. Blix reports to the Security Council.  So, we'll have to see what additional marching orders -- if any -- the Council gives him. 

Question:  I know you weren't at the meeting.  According to one paper, United States officials are saying that in the technical talks Tuesday there was already some obstructionism.  Is there any way that you are able to comment on that or confirm that?

Spokesman:  That's the first time I heard it, but I think you should put that question to Dr. Blix. 

Question: Today President Bush said very clearly that there were no negotiations with Iraq -- no negotiations at all.  These talks between the United Nations and the Iraqis sound like negotiations about practical arrangements.  It's still not clear.

Spokesman:  I don't think you would negotiate practical arrangements.  These are discussions about practical arrangements on the understanding that there are no conditions.  But the procedures for carrying out inspections have to be laid out very clearly at the beginning, so that problems that could be anticipated now are not encountered later on the ground to cause some kind of conflict that could trigger a more serious situation.  So we're trying to eliminate all these practical obstacles to a smooth inspection process.  It's not a negotiation.

Question:  What is the United Nations response to President Bush saying again today, more out in the open, that in effect no matter what the United Nations does, the United States is justified and will stage its own action.  Whatever it wants.  Besides accusing the United Nations of having no backbone, is the United Nations feeling that that's a justified position?

Spokesman:  Well, I've already said before in this room I think when these comments are addressed to the United Nations, it's not to us the Secretariat.  I think he's talking about his fellow members of the Security Council.  And that is being discussed among members of the Council at the highest level.  The Secretariat is not going to enter into that debate.  So, let's just see what emerges from the Council when eventually they sit down to discuss Iraq, maybe even starting this afternoon when Dr. Blix briefs them on his preliminary discussions with the Iraqis on practical arrangements.

Question: Isn't he, in effect, by those comments that he heard moments before his own, putting the Secretary-General's speech in the garbage can? 

Spokesman: I'm not going to comment on a speech by the President of the United States that I don't think was aimed at the Secretary-General. 

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