- Title: IRAQ: IRAQIS WATCH COLIN POWELL PRESENTATION TO U.N., INSPECTIONS CONTINUE.
- Date: 6th February 2003
- Summary: (W6) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 5, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF IRAQIS WATCHING U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL MAKE HIS PRESENTATION ON TELEVISION (12 SHOTS) 0.57 (U3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 5, 2003) (REUTERS) 2. LV/GV: U.N. INSPECTORS AT THE AL-NU'MAN STATE COMPANY BELONGING TO THE AGRICULTURAL MINISTRY (5 SHOTS) 1.22 3. CU/GV/MV: INSPECTORS GETTING INTO THE NUTRITION RESEARCH INSTITUTE AT AL-ADHAMIYA, BAGHDAD (5 SHOTS) 1.41 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 21st February 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA75SAXVWNLEL1NV26GQ0FVKBNK
- Story Text: Iraqis in Baghdad watched on television U.S. Secretary
of State Colin Powell make his presentation to the U.N.
Security Council while inspectors continued their search for
weapons of mass destruction.
In a presentation that included U.S. intelligence from
spy satellites, telephone intercepts and Iraqi defectors,
Powell argued that Iraq had concealed equipment from its
suspected weapons programs to flout the U.N. inspectors
searching the country for evidence of chemical, biological and
nuclear arms.
He argued that Iraq is in "further material breach" of
U.N. resolutions demanding that it disarm and he said it was
now in danger of suffering "serious consequences," diplomatic
code for the possibility of a U.S.-led military invasion.
Speaking with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director
George Tenet sitting behind him, Powell's presentation was
designed to persuade a skeptical Security Council and world
opinion that U.N. weapons inspectors cannot disarm Iraq and
that war may be the only resort.
As Powell spoke, another country that Washington accuses
of pursuing a weapons of mass destruction program, North
Korea, sounded a defiant note on plans to bring its
four-month-old impasse with Washington over its nuclear
intentions to the U.N. Security Council, threatening to ignore
its findings.
While none of the U.N. Security Council's members believe
Iraq has offered its unstinting cooperation to the U.N.
weapons inspectors searching the country for chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons programs, many believe they
deserve more time.
That view clashes with U.S. President George W. Bush's
stand that Baghdad has weeks, not months, to bow to the will
of the United Nations and give up its suspected arms or face a
U.S.-led military campaign.
Iraq, which denies it has such weapons, blasted Powell's
address in advance through government newspaper al-Jumhouriya,
which said: "What Powell is going to present will be cheap
satellite pictures and vague recorded conversations."
There was no sign from the major powers most skeptical of
using force -- France and Germany -- that they were shifting
their positions ahead of Powell's remarks.
The U.N weapons inspectors visited at least nine more
sites in Iraq on Wednesday (February 5).
A biological team from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification
and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) went to al-Nu'man, a
state-run irrigation company south of Baghdad.
Another team combed a food research centre in Baghdad and
a third inspected a laser research centre belonging to Baghdad
University. A fourth team visited a dairy factory in Abu
Ghraib north of the capital.
A missile team went to the al-Mutasim missile plant 90 km
(54 miles) west of Baghdad and another team visited a missile
factory belonging to the al-Karamah facility, which allegedly
conducted research on missile guidance and control systems.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
visited warehouses in the Tuweitha compound, the main site of
the Iraqi nuclear programme south of Baghdad before it was
removed in an earlier round of inspections. They also
inspected the site of the Osirak reactor bombed by Israel in
1981.
The Iraqi officials also said that a multidisciplinary
team inspected an undisclosed site north of Baghdad.
U.N. arms inspectors said they found an empty chemical
warhead at a military depot near Baghdad on Tuesday (February
4), the same type as 12 undeclared empty warheads found
elsewhere last month.
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