Challenges to UN decisions scrutinized; Baghdad sites attacked after assassination plot.

• Position: Iraq; US response to thwarted plot to assassinate former President George Bush; includes related article on UN report summarizing environmental damage from 1991 Persian Gulf War - United Nations developments

Baghdad sites attacked after assassination plot

Iraq remained unwilling to comply with its obligations under UN Security Council resolutions adopted after the Persian Gulf war - a "most unwelcome

trend" - the Executive Chairman of the UN Special Commission on Iraqi disarmament (UNSCOM) reported on 21 June. Iraq's actions, he said, amounted to a "de facto rejection" of binding UN decisions.

And on 26 June, the United States - in retaliation for a reported assassination attempt against former President George Bush during a visit to Kuwait in April - launched a missile attack against Iraqi Intelligence Service headquarters in Baghdad.

The United States told the Security Council that its military action was in "self-defence", given the murder attempt against Mr. Bush.

Despite these worrisome situations, there were some positive developments during the three-month period between April and the end of June 1993, including the final demarcation by the UN of the border between Iraq and Kuwait, and the complete destruction of some declared stocks of chemical weapons precursor agents by UNSCOM.

The mandate of the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) was extended for another six months, until 30 September.

Retaliation for

|murder attempt'

In Council debate the day after its attack on Baghdad, the United States, which had requested the meeting, said it regretted the loss of civilian lives resulting from the attack, but its unilateral response had been proportionate.

The Council was informed that on 14 April, when former President Bush began a three-day visit to Kuwait City, Kuwaiti authorities had thwarted a terrorist plot, seizing a powerful car bomb and arresting 16 suspects. The ringleaders were two Iraqi nationals.

The United States said it conducted a meticulous investigation, concluding that Iraq had planned, equipped and launched the terrorist operation that threatened the life of a former American President.

All nations should redouble their resolve to ensure that Baghdad's criminal regime was "never again able to disturb the peace", it said.

Iraq called the attack "just one more page in the history of the United States policy of aggression" against Iraq, a "policy aimed at gaining control of the region and subjugating it to its will". The assassination attempt story had been fabricated by the Kuwaiti Government, it claimed.

Iraq balks

In the face of what was called persistent Iraqi refusal to assist the Special Commission in its work, Executive Chairman Rolf Ekeus on 21 June made a generally negative report (S/25977) on the situation to the Council.

Despite efforts to establish ongoing monitoring and verification of the disarmament process, through installation of surveillance cameras, he said, basic conditions for "full-scale implementation" of...