DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General was in the Security Council where he had presented the agreement reached between the United Nations and the Republic of Iraq. The Secretary-General's legal counsel, Hans Corell, who accompanied him on his trip to Iraq and did much of the drafting of the agreement, also helped brief the Security Council.

The text of the agreement, called the Memorandum of Understanding, was made available following the press briefing and copies could be obtained in room 378, Mr. Eckhard said. The details of the Memorandum would be discussed by the Secretary-General in a press briefing following the Security Council session. [The Secretary-General's remarks during that briefing have been issued as Press Release SG/SM/6470.]

In addition to hearing from the Secretary-General on Iraq, the Council was expected to take up Western Sahara and then hold a formal meeting on Tajikistan, Mr. Eckhard said.

On the Secretary-General's work on Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said that before the Secretary-General left on the plane provided by President Jacques Chirac of France, he had a meeting with the President in Paris. He flew into Saddam Hussein Airport in Baghdad late in the afternoon of Friday, 20 February, and the United Nations delegation was pleased that the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz, wanted to meet with the Secretary-General immediately. The Secretary-General and the United Nations delegation had assumed that the talks would begin on Saturday. When the delegation got to the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Aziz took the Secretary-General to a private room and the two of them talked for about 30 minutes.

The delegation became aware the first night that there was going to be at least one difficult sticking point in the talks -- the question of time limits on inspections, Mr. Eckhard said. The Iraqis were holding fast to maintain a time limit. On Saturday morning, the Secretary-General met with Russian Special Envoy Viktor Posavalyuk, who had lived in Baghdad through the last war and had spent about eight years there. He offered some useful advice to the Secretary-General.

The delegation then went back to the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Eckhard said, where again the Secretary-General and Mr. Aziz spoke privately for 90 minutes. At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, the first and only formal meeting between the full Iraqi and United Nations delegations was held, with about 12 people on the Iraqi side and about 10 on the United Nations side. That meeting ended about 1 p.m.

In the afternoon on Saturday, Mr. Eckhard said, the Secretary-General had some time to confer with his aides. He met with the French Ambassador to

Iraq, Yves Aubin de al Messuziere, and at 4 p.m. the Secretary-General decided to meet with the entire diplomatic community, which consisted of the ambassadors and the heads of United Nations agencies, a total of about 50 people. The Secretary-General thanked them and their governments for their support and said at that time that he was not discouraged by the negotiations.

The United Nations delegation went back to the Foreign Ministry at about 6 p.m. Saturday, Mr. Eckhard said, and the Secretary-General and Mr. Aziz again entered into private negotiations. During that time, however, Mr. Corell and Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, were called into the negotiations. Those two were the senior-most advisers throughout the process. It was decided, at that time, that the meeting between the Secretary-General and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would take place at noon on Sunday. Mr. Aziz and the Secretary-General broke for dinner for about two hours and returned to negotiations at 11 p.m. They continued the negotiations until 2 a.m. Sunday morning.

At the end of that meeting, there were still issues outstanding, Mr. Eckhard said. At 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the negotiations resumed, just 90 minutes before the meeting with President Hussein. They were working with bracketed text at that time -- the brackets were around items about which there was no agreement. All but one set of brackets were removed just before noon, when the Secretary-General, Mr. Corell, Mr. Brahimi and Ralph Knutsson, the Senior Political Officer on Iraq, were taken to the Republican Palace, the main palace in Baghdad and one of the eight presidential sites. They spent about three hours there and for two of those three hours, the middle segment, the Secretary-General had private consultations with President Hussein.

The outstanding issue continued to be the time limit on inspections on the presidential sites, Mr. Eckhard said. At the end of that session between the Secretary-General and Mr. Hussein, that issue was resolved to the Secretary-General's satisfaction. The Secretary-General described his conversation with President Hussein as tough, but also constructive. It was the first time the two had met and the Secretary-General felt that, on a human level, he had begun to establish a relationship that he thinks would be helpful to him in the future.

After the meeting with President Hussein, Mr. Eckhard said, there were only minor textual and drafting matters to clean up. The United Nations delegation announced at 4 p.m. Sunday that the Secretary-General felt they were on the verge of a breakthrough. Talks resumed at the Foreign Ministry at 7 p.m. Sunday and the delegation predicted that a formal announcement would be made on Monday. However, the Iraqi News Agency began to report that an agreement had been struck. At about 9 p.m. that night, the United Nations delegation told the press that there was a deal and that a signature was expected that night or Monday morning.

At 10:15 the next morning, following a 9 a.m. meeting on the oil-for- food issue with Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, the agreement was

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signed at the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Eckhard said. The signing ceremony was not open to the press, but it was on UNTV and Iraqi TV and they made the video available to the press.

Mr. Eckhard added that throughout the weekend,the Secretary-General was in touch with all five permanent members of the Security Council, at least at the Foreign Minister level and in some cases higher. He spoke with President Chirac, United States President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other world leaders. The Secretary-General felt that he had their confidence and support for the deal that was shaping up. He was happy with the text, which he felt was clearly within the guidelines, however narrow they were, that the five permanent members had given him before he left. Those guidelines were: that the Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq had to be fully respected; and that the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) regime, charged with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, had to be preserved.

Mr. Eckhard said the indications coming out of the Security Council during its morning session today was that it was moving towards approval of the agreement. There was also the possibility of a statement from the President of the Security Council to the press following the session, which would give the Council's final decision.

Before the Secretary-General left Iraq, he paid a courtesy call on the United Nations office there, where he addressed a group of about 300 local and international staff, Mr. Eckhard said. The United Nations delegation was then treated to a brunch on their way to the airport at one of the other presidential sites.

Mr. Eckhard said the eight presidential sites were surveyed in mid- February by a technical team lead by Staffan de Mistura (Sweden). The technical team found that, contrary to previous belief, the sites had multiple luxury dwellings within their walls for visiting heads of State, not one main building. In seven of the eight presidential sites, there was no one structure that could be singled out as the principal building. The brunch was held at a presidential site near the airport in Baghdad that had about four or five large residences. The delegation ate in one building, toured another and drove around the grounds of that site.

The Memorandum of Understanding did not distinguish between the palaces and the presidential sites, Mr. Eckhard said. It took all the areas defined by the Iraqi Government as presidential sites and subjected them to special procedures for inspection. Those procedures were described in the Memorandum of Understanding, which would be discussed by the Secretary-General in a press briefing later.

On other issues, Mr. Eckhard said the United States paid today $12,370,991, which was applied against its peacekeeping arrears. Thirty-four Members States out of 185 were paid in full for 1998. The total outstanding

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contributions of the United States was over $1.6 billion; of that, $670 million was owed to the regular budget and $927 million for peacekeeping.

Also, Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement today in Geneva expressing her grave concern about the decision of the Federal Court of Malaysia, Mr. Eckhard said. Last week that Court issued a ruling in which it refused to accept United Nations claims of immunity for Param Cumaraswamy, the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. Copies of that statement were available on the third floor.

Mr. Eckhard said there was also a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) press release issued today on Rwanda. The press release stated that hundreds of thousands of children who survived the 1994 genocide in Rwanda were now struggling for survival in desperately impoverished households without parents. A report prepared with the support of UNICEF was presenting an assessment of those child-headed households in Rwanda. That press release was also available on the third floor.

From the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there was a press release on an agreement signed between the FAO and the Common Fund for Commodities, Mr. Eckhard added. The agreement was intended to enhance cooperation and better assist developing countries.

Mr. Eckhard was then asked if the Secretary-General would attempt to "sell" the agreement reached in Iraq to United States Congressmen when he visited Washington, D.C., next week. He responded that a trip to Washington had not been announced, but the Secretary-General had previously planned for a trip to Washington that had nothing to do with the Iraq situation. The idea of meeting with Congressional leaders was not to explain the agreement or sell it, but to report on the United Nations reform efforts made last year. The Secretary-General would also ask them to keep their part of the bargain, which was to basically pay the United States' assessed contributions to the United Nations.

A correspondent asked if the main palace in Baghdad, where the Secretary-General and President Hussein met, would be inspected by UNSCOM. Mr. Eckhard said that the main palace would be inspected, because it was one of the eight presidential sites specified by the technical inspection team.

Correspondents also asked a number of questions concerning the details of the Memorandum of Understanding and on special procedures for inspecting presidential sites. Mr. Eckhard said specific details of the Memorandum should be addressed to the Secretary-General during his briefing.

Mr. Eckhard was asked if a Security Council resolution was needed to put the agreement into effect. He said that the Secretary-General, on behalf of the United Nations, could conclude an agreement with a Member State. Council

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approval was not needed in legal terms, but it was desirable in political terms and that was what the Secretary-General was hoping to get this morning.

Mr. Eckhard was asked to elaborate on the relationship created during the meetings between President Hussein and the Secretary-General. He responded that President Hussein said, following the meetings, that the Secretary-General was someone he could trust. The Secretary-General believed that relationship would be useful in future relations with Iraq.

When asked if the Secretary-General could use that relationship with President Hussein to help bring Iraq into good standing among nations, Mr. Eckhard said Iraq had obligations to live up to and those were spelled out in the Security Council resolutions. The Memorandum bound Iraq to once again live up to those commitments, so that the United Nations could complete the inspection process. The Council could then consider lifting sanctions and Iraq could go about the business of reconstructing its economy and getting itself back on its feet. The agreement was one step in that process.

A correspondent asked if there were any restricted sites mentioned in the Memorandum. Mr. Eckhard said there were no restricted sites in the agreement. The Memorandum addressed eight presidential sites and it went on to say that Iraq reaffirmed its commitment to allow the inspection of all sites. It was inferred from the Memorandum that all of Iraq was open for inspection.

In response to questions on when the agreement would be tested by UNSCOM, Mr. Eckhard said that while he did not speak for UNSCOM, he did not think that UNSCOM would ask to go into those presidential sites unless they had an investigative trail that led to one of the them. It was a matter of principle that no part of Iraq should be closed to inspections. The purpose for the Memorandum was to establish that UNSCOM could inspect the presidential sites if there was reason to, and that they would not evolve into an off- limits hiding place for restricted materials. It would be up to UNSCOM Executive Chairman Richard Butler, under the terms of the Memorandum, to decide when to go into the sites. The UNSCOM would need a reason to go in, however. It would not investigate a site just to test the agreement.

A correspondent then asked if the Secretary-General made any attempt to assess the humanitarian and health problems caused by sanctions in Iraq. Mr. Eckhard said the talks the Secretary-General had with Vice-President Ramadan on Monday morning addressed the need for fuller cooperation on the part of Iraq, as the United Nations tried to assess the country's capacity for pumping oil and improving the distribution of food and medicines. There was, in the general discussions, talk of the current conditions in Iraq and Iraq's desire to see sanctions lifted as soon as possible. In the Memorandum, it was made clear that Iraq could do that by allowing the UNSCOM inspection to move forward.

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When asked if the Memorandum made any mention of when sanctions would be ended, Mr. Eckhard said there was no date or deadline for the end of sanctions.

A correspondent asked if UNSCOM would retain the element of surprise when inspecting sites. Mr. Eckhard said UNSCOM would be able to go wherever it wanted and the Iraqis would have no prior knowledge of where the team would be investigating.

When asked if there was a date when UNSCOM would resume inspections, Mr. Eckhard said that UNSCOM inspections had been going on throughout the crisis. The only sites that were closed to inspection were the presidential sites and there was even some confusion as to those sites and their parameters. The technical inspection team settled that once and for all. The UNSCOM inspections throughout the rest of the country, however, had been continuing.

A correspondent said there had been reports that there were 60 so-called sensitive sites that the Iraqis were restricting from UNSCOM. Were those sites included in the agreement? she asked. Mr. Eckhard said some confusion had arisen because there were 60 visits where UNSCOM had been denied access and that had been confused with 60 sites. There were also more than eight palaces and there had been discussion of those sites as being off limits. That confusion about the sites was the reason the technical inspection team was sent to Iraq, to see what sites were restricted. There were now three regimes. The newest regime was for eight presidential sites. There was also a regime for sensitive sites, which was any site that Iraq declared sensitive once UNSCOM arrived at them. Inspection of those was negotiated by the previous Chairman of UNSCOM, Rolf Ekeus. The last regime was for all the rest of the sites. The Memorandum recommitted Iraq to opening up all sites to inspection.

Would the inspection of the sensitive sites be conducted under a different routine or by regular UNSCOM inspection teams? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the formula called for a fixed number of UNSCOM inspectors to go into the sensitive sites and certain other procedures, which made their inspection "somewhat more polite" than the inspection of regular sites.

In response to a question as to whether the denial of access had anything to do with the presidential sites, Mr. Eckhard said "probably yes" and referred the correspondent to UNSCOM.

Had the problem of regarding the nationality of UNSCOM inspectors been dealt with? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said that issue was not addressed in the Memorandum of Understanding, but he believed it was discussed in Baghdad.

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Asked if UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter and his team would be returning to Baghdad, Mr. Eckhard said the correspondent should ask UNSCOM that question.

Would a Security Council resolution to lock in Iraq's compliance be more or less helpful? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the Council would make that decision. The special arrangements for sensitive sites were contained in a letter from former UNSCOM Chairman Rolf Ekeus to Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Those matters were between the United Nations and the Government of Iraq and did not require formal Council approval. The Council would decide whether it wanted to go beyond a presidential statement today to the press.

The question of enforcement had not been discussed, a correspondent said. Given Iraq's bad compliance with its agreements, did the Secretary- General believe the matter should be addressed in a Security Council resolution? she asked. Mr. Eckhard replied that the relevant Council resolutions were all taken under Chapter VII, "so enforcement was part of the package".

Mr. Eckhard, in response to a question, said a correspondent should ask the Secretary-General about whether Iraq had requested that the productivity of the distribution plan under the "oil-for-food" formula be increased.

How soon would UNSCOM be able to finish its job and when would the sanctions be eased? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said there was no mention in the Memorandum of Understanding of a deadline for giving Iraq "a clean bill of health". The Council would make that judgement based on UNSCOM's work. "We will just have to see how it plays out", he said.

When he was in Iraq did the Spokesman get any sense of general anxiety or awareness of the military build-up offshore? another correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said that the United Nations team generally moved from the guesthouse to the Foreign Ministry and back and some of the journalists there might be able to give a better sense of public feeling. The international community was concerned that the exercise of the military option could have serious repercussions for stability in the region, which was why there was so much support for the Secretary-General's mission.

What had the Secretary-General said to get the Iraqi President to concede on the last issue of time-limits on inspections? a correspondent asked. "I wish I had been a fly on the wall, but I wasn't there", Mr. Eckhard said. "It was just the two of them and one interpreter", he added.

Asked if the UNSCOM inspectors were following a trail when they were denied access to the presidential sites, Mr. Eckhard said the question was a technical one, which the correspondent should direct to UNSCOM. The inspectors were denied access to a larger perimeter around the main palace and the actual walls, which led them to believe that presidential sites extended

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beyond the walls. That was one reason why their "guesstimate" at the total area covered by the presidential sites turned out to be much larger than that found by Mr. de Mistura's team. Every time the UNSCOM team got stopped, they marked the spot on a map, and assumed it was a presidential site.

Asked about whether any Council Members had proposed a resolution, Mr. Eckhard said it was too early to tell what the Council planned to do.

In reply to a question as to whether the UNSCOM inspectors were ever stopped at the eight presidential sites, Mr. Eckhard said he did not know the "nuts and bolts" of UNSCOM's daily experience and the correspondent should direct his questions to the Commission. He said he would ask Mr. Butler when he would be available to speak to the press.

What were the Iraqi complaints about UNSCOM? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said he did not know if there were any discussions on Iraq's complaints against UNSCOM. "There may well have been, because so much of the discussions were one-on-one and we don't know what went on". Clearly, one of the major Iraqi concerns was more respect for their national sovereignty. The presidential sites could be places where the President spends the night and so they were asking for a little more than normal UNSCOM inspections.

Had the Secretary-General expressed any hope that the agreement would strengthen his hand when he went to Washington to ask the United States to pay its dues? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said it was totally fortuitous that the agreement had been reached before the planned trip to Washington, adding, "We have no assessment yet whether it has raised or lowered his stock in Washington and we will probably find out when we get there next week".

Asked whether Council members had voted for or against the agreement this morning, Mr. Eckhard said the Council was holding informal consultations, so there was no voting or veto. However, traditionally each Member spoke and if there was consensus the Council President would then tell the press. If the Council wanted to do something in writing, then a Member or groups of Members would introduce and circulate a draft text, which they would then debate until they reached agreement. During the morning meeting, Council members were discussing a statement to the press.

In reply to another question, Mr. Eckhard said the Memorandum was the first time an agreement had been negotiated directly with the Iraqi President. The Secretary-General believed he could count on the President "delivering on it".

Did the discussions address the issue of the U-2 flights over Iraq? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said he could not discuss those details.

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