VOL. XLI

No. 09

2 March 1998

The Political Scene

At the eleventh hour, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan succeeded in preventinghostilities in the Gulf by producing an agreement with Iraq which provides unconditionalaccess to "presidential" sites for UN weapons inspectors. The Americans, whowere initially skeptical, agreed to go along with the deal after receiving assurances fromMr. Annan about various potential ambiguities in the text, and at MEES press time theSecurity Council was considering...