Nations Unite To Track Arms Shipments

The United States is forming a group of 28 countries to monitor the movement of war materiel and prevent “future Iraqs” from developing, the Clinton administration said Thursday.

“Those who are the major suppliers of arms and the sensitive technologies will come together and deal firmly with their current problems: Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea,” said Lynn E. Davis, the State Department undersecretary for international security.

Their purpose, she said, will be to produce “a mechanism to prevent the kinds of destabilizing buildups of conventional arms that were associated with Iraq’s buildup over five years ago.”

President Saddam Hussein’s government in Baghdad remains under U.N. sanctions because it has failed to satisfy the United Nations of its good faith in destroying weapons stockpiles amassed before its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The 28 countries will replace the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls, which went out of existence after the Cold War ended.