UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- U.N. Security Council members Wednesday urged Baghdad to match words with deeds in resolving missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals believed in Iraq from the 1990 Gulf War.
After the council met behind closed doors to review Secretary-General Kofi Annan's latest report on the repatriation or return of all Kuwaiti and third-county nationals or their remains, the president of the council for August, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte read aloud a statement to the news media in which the panel decried the lack of cooperation.
He said members found that despite growing international efforts, including among Arabs and Muslims, Iraq had yet to show any cooperation.
Acting in his national capacity, Negroponte said he brought to the attention of the 14 other council members Washington's concern about the case of U.S. Navy Cmdr. Michael Speicher.
"We continue to seek answers from Baghdad in our effort to resolve Commander Speicher's fate," the Washington envoy said. "Despite our extensive efforts in this regard, Iraq has continued to assert that they will provide no new information."
He then referred reporters to a footnote on Speicher's case in Annan's report, calling it "an accurate description of the situation."
It said a diplomatic note was sent to Iraq through the International Committee of the Red Cross in response to a March 19 invitation from Baghdad to the United States to send a team of investigators to Iraq.
"The note would seek clarification on whether the government of Iraq would offer new information regarding the fate of Captain Speicher," the missive said. "The United States had earlier declined to send a delegation to Iraq since the invitation stated that the authorities in Baghdad had no new information to offer.
"Depending on the response to the note, the United States would decide whether to propose a meeting in Geneva under the auspices of ICRC," the footnote continued. "U.S. officials agreed that every avenue should be explored in order to resolve the case."
Negroponte, as council president, also told reporters that council members "expressed their hope that this (repatriation) issue would continue to be dealt with as a strictly humanitarian one by all sides concerned and be resolved urgently," adding that panel members shared the views expressed by the secretary-general in his report.
"They recognized that despite growing international activity, by the League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the European Union, the government of Iraq has yet to match its words on the fate of missing persons with tangible deeds and cooperation," Negroponte said. "They supported the secretary-general's call on Iraq to restore its credibility on the outstanding humanitarian issues and stand by its intention to fully implement the decisions of the Beirut summit on the issue of missing persons."
Again in his national capacity, Negroponte was asked about the recent response from Baghdad to Annan's letter earlier this month rejecting their invitation to chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix for talks before inspections resume. The secretary-general insisted, as does the council in one of its resolution, for inspections to resume before talks.
"We don't see anything new in the Iraqi letter," the ambassador said. "It is a reiteration of previous positions that raise a lot of political and other extraneous conditions to the issue at hand, which is the immediate resumption of unconditional inspections with a view to disarming Iraq of any weapons of mass destruction."
As council president, Negroponte said, "although the issue came up today, it was not a formal agenda item and we did not have extensive discussion of that letter although I am sure that individual council members will make their views known to the secretary-general with respect to this latest Iraqi message."
While he did not expect it to be brought up formally anytime soon, diplomatic sources said France, Russia and Syria saw positive signs in the latest letter and wanted it discussed.
