UNITED NATIONS -- As delicate negotiations over a new international policy on Iraq go on behind the scenes, President Saddam Hussein is complicating his situation in the United Nations Security Council with a stream of bellicose statements directed both at his enemies and at friends such as Russia, France and his Arab neighbors.

Iraqis also are sending mixed signals about their ties to the United Nations, which administers a huge oil-for-food program in their country. Iraq has said it will never allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return, but has generally cooperated with aid workers.

In recent days, however, Iraqi officials have refused to allow U.N. relief experts to survey damage done to civilian sites by U.S. and British air attacks almost two weeks ago. Some U.N. officials say they believe this is because damage to civilian buildings was light, countering Iraqi claims of major damage and casualties.

Since the attacks, Iraqi officials have couched their verbal assaults in racial and anti-Jewish terms, saying "Anglo-Saxons" dominate the arms inspection system and that President Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair of England are under the influence of "Zionist cliques."

Hussein also has denounced the French, who have called for the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Iraq. The verbal attacks began after President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said the Iraqi leadership bore responsibility for the bombing by refusing to cooperate with U.N. arms inspectors.

Hussein and his ministers have attacked Arab leaders for backing away from Iraq when they should, in Iraq's view, be lining up to break the sanctions.

In Cairo, Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak took direct aim at Iraqi leaders in a newspaper interview.

"We opposed the air attack," Mubarak said, "because in the final reckoning, it is the people of Iraq who pay the price. We sympathize with the Iraqi people because we know that our brothers and sons in this fraternal country can do nothing about it and the regime in power is the root of all problems."

Pub Date: 12/29/98