KATIE DAVIS, Host: The United States said today's attack on Iraq was provoked largely by Baghdad's refusal to allow U.N. weapons inspectors free access to the country. Iraq has periodically interfered with the work of a U.N. special commission, set up after the Gulf War to oversee the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. We asked Raghida Dergham, senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based Al Hayat newspaper what reasons Iraq has given to explain its actions.

RAGHIDA DERGHAM, Senior Diplomatic Correspondent, Al Hayat: The Iraqi justification has been a history of what it calls the use of the special commission for other than the U.N. purposes, however, that relationship had had a lot of ups and downs, but largely had accomplished quite a bit, in fact the chairman of the special commission once said that his commission had accomplished much more through the work than it has done over the last two years, much more than the bombs that fell on Baghdad two years ago. So, this has been a relationship of up an down, however, this last showdown, if you will, it seems that the Iraqis wanted to force the issue of the no-fly zones in both north and south Iraq. First, through separating these zones from the U.N. resolutions and secondly, through probably forcing that the problems of the no-fly zone through the special commission and finally, they kept backtracking and the Iraqis kept backing down to the extent that this morning they did make the offer of accepting the special commission's routing from [unintelligible] so long as the commission would guarantee that American, British and French planes do not fly in the southern zone of Iraq during the flights of the special commission.

DAVIS: Yes, much of this recent confrontation over the past few weeks has centered on the no-fly zones. Remind us when they were established and why.

Ms. DERGHAM: The no-fly zones have been established in two different stages, first the no-fly zone in the northern part of Iraq was established to help the Kurds there. And the United States likes to say that Resolution 688, which is the only resolution not adopted under chapter seven of the charter, had given the United Nations the right to criticize Saddam Hussein and try to oppose oppression of the Shiites in the south and the Kurds in the north. So the first no-fly zone was imposed in the north and then a few months ago, another zone was imposed in the south and again, it was by the three countries. It is incorrect to say these no-fly zones have been endorsed by the United Nations because there is no U.N. resolution, no Council resolution that has endorsed them, so therefore, technically speaking, yes, these imposed by the three countries of the coalition and not by the Security Council.

DAVIS: Although this past week, U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, responding to the earlier bombing of Iraq, said that Iraq had brought it on itself by not respecting U.N. resolutions.

Ms. DERGHAM: Yes, in the general sense, but if you were discussing the no-fly zones, they are not based, nor authorized by a Security Council resolution. Now, even the spokesman of the secretary general said so. However, if the defiance of Iraq of several or of U.N. resolutions in general is what the secretary general had in mind, then it's justified, but certainly no-fly zones are not based on, they may be infiltration to be based on Security Council resolutions but there is no resolution that authorizes them.

DAVIS: Why do you think Saddam Hussein is challenging the United States and its allies right now? What's he trying to achieve?

Ms. DERGHAM: Well, I think it was a, it has been a very personal vendetta and I think he's been trying to draw President George Bush into something, or at least into an engagement, though he's been backing down quite often before attacks normally, however, he just wanted to cause embarrassment to President Bush and show him as the man who would be provoked and take action and back down and that sort of thing, but I think it is not, at least if we read what the ambassador of Iraq or the British prime minister has been saying about the Clinton administration, this might change, particularly that the Iraqis want definitely to divorce the Clinton administration from the promise made by George Bush himself to link his continuation of the embargo with the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein.

DAVIS: In his speech today, Saddam Hussein, he raised the issue of Kuwait and at least based on the English interpretations that we're reading, he seemed to be reasserting Iraq's claim to Kuwait. How do Arab countries feel about a claim like that?

Ms. DERGHAM: Arab countries never, even those that had supported Saddam Hussein two years ago and no longer support him now, but even those, never really endorsed Saddam Hussein's claim to Kuwait, so Arab countries have not been a partner in welcoming the invasion or the claim that Saddam Hussein has on Kuwait. They differed on the ways and means of how to resolve the issue, but they never endorsed the claim of the Iraqis.

DAVIS: Well, thank you very much for speaking with us. Raghida Dergham is the senior diplomatic correspondent for Al Hayat, an Arabic daily based in London.