No Mediation in Iraq, U.S. Tells Annan

WASHINGTON — The White House sought Monday to discourage U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan from traveling to Iraq to mediate the weapons inspection crisis, saying Iraqi President Saddam Hussein already is fully aware of the potential consequences of his actions.

During a similar standoff with Iraq last winter, the White House expressed gratitude to Annan for averting a threatened Western military strike by making a deal with Iraqi officials to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to resume their work.

This time, however, the White House said it isn’t interested.

“We don’t think more messages need to be delivered,” White House spokesman David Leavy said. “Saddam knows what he has to do. He’s gotten plenty of messages.”

President Clinton met with his top foreign policy advisors Sunday at Camp David and instructed them to conduct detailed reviews of the potential consequences of various options for dealing with Iraq.

The advisors held a meeting without Clinton late Monday and are expected to deliver their answers to the president by midweek, officials said. No decisions on use of force are expected before then.

White House officials concede that any military action might make it impossible for U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq, effectively spelling the end of the policy in place since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

In what U.S. officials regard as Hussein’s most flagrant rebuff of the international community since the war, the Iraqi president 10 days ago issued a blanket refusal to allow U.N. inspectors to continue looking for evidence of nuclear, biological, chemical or missile weapons programs.

Clinton has warned Hussein that if he fails to reverse course on inspections, the United States may use military force to prevent further development of weapons of mass destruction and keep Hussein from threatening Iraqi Kurds and neighboring nations.

White House officials have said they are closer to using force against Iraq than at almost any other time since the Gulf War and have suggested that the timing of a military strike is likely to be sooner rather than later.

“This is not a situation that can go on indefinitely,” Leavy said.

Clinton administration officials indicated that new diplomatic efforts are not in the works.

“We are not hearing much about that,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. “It’s a pretty clear situation. Either Iraq is going to rescind its decision and come back into compliance, or it’s not.”

At the United Nations, a U.N. spokesman said Monday that Annan had no plans to travel to Iraq at this time but acknowledged that the secretary-general had received appeals from member governments to intervene.

“We see it as entirely a matter for the Security Council to decide,” said Fred Eckhard, the spokesman.

Traveling in Africa, Annan confirmed that he had received several phone calls about the situation and was in touch with parties seeking to ease the tension. He said he planned to continue his 10-day North Africa trip and is scheduled to return to New York on Monday.

Shogren reported from Washington and Goldman from the United Nations.