ABSTRACT
The immediate issue in early 1998 was unfettered inspection to uncover Iraq's chemical and other weapons of mass destruction. Saddam's goal remained the lifting of UN sanctions. Having split Iraq's Kurds, he succeeded in further isolating Washington from Western members of the 1990-91 coalition as well as from Russia and Arab friends fed up with American unwillingness to overthrow him or bring its headstrong Israeli ally to heel. The crisis again highlighted the bankruptcy of Washington's dual containment policy designed to isolate Iran and Iraq. Iraq's sidelined Kurdish leaders did not figure as major actors during the protracted diplomatic gesturing and American military buildup in the Gulf in 1998. In Iraqi Kurdistan Saddam's influence was such that even Talabani swallowed his pride and joined Barzani in dispatching emissaries to Baghdad. To reinforce their disgrace they were received by none other than AM Chemical.
