U.S. May Force Inspections Officials Say They Expect Support From United Nations Against Iraq

The United States still might have to use military force to open suspected Iraqi weapons sites to U.N. inspectors, and it feels certain of Security Council support despite reluctance from veto-holders France, Russia and China, Clinton administration officials said Sunday.

Bill Richardson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said U.N. resolutions already in force would justify military action if necessary. But he added: “We don’t want to reach that point.”

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about lessening enthusiasm in the United Nations even for continued sanctions against Iraq, Richardson said, “We believe we will have support within the Security Council” if force becomes necessary.

But Russia, China and France refused to support the latest U.S. effort, a draft resolution introduced Friday, to get Security Council condemnation of any further move by Iraq to keep U.N. arms inspectors from presidential palaces and other “sovereignty sites.”

Also Friday, Iraqi officials escorted foreign reporters around some of President Saddam Hussein’s palaces and vowed that U.N. inspectors never will enter them.

“That’s completely unacceptable, and we hope the Security Council will send a resounding signal that it’s unacceptable,” Defense Secretary William Cohen said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The council will meet again today.

President Clinton wants to exhaust every diplomatic opportunity, Cohen said, but he is not foreclosing any option including U.S. retaliation on its own. Asked whether the United States would be willing to go to war over the inspections, Cohen responded: “I think the president has said he has ruled nothing in or nothing out.”

U.N. inspectors are trying to determine whether Iraq has destroyed all its long-range missiles and chemical, biological and nuclear programs - the main condition for lifting crippling sanctions imposed on Baghdad in 1990 after Saddam sent his forces to occupy neighboring Kuwait.

The chief U.N. weapons inspector, Richard Butler, has said his inspectors “have evidence or reason to believe that prohibited items have been or do exist in places” designated off-limits.

“If Saddam Hussein moves ahead and blocks some further inspections, I think that tensions are going to rise dramatically,” Richardson said.

In talking with Cohen, a CBS moderator wondered why Saddam should open his palaces to inspectors when the United States would never allow uninhibited searches of the White House or the State Department.

“We have one White House, one State Department. He has at least 80 so-called presidential palaces, many of which aren’t palaces at all but are simply Republican Guard facilities,” Cohen replied.

“These are vast complexes, some of which are larger than the entire city of Washington, D.C. We’re not talking about having his personal residence inspected.”