CYPRUS/FRANCE/IRAQ: CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR HANS BLIX ENROUTE TO BAGHDAD HOLDS TALKS WITH FRENCH OFFICIALS IN PARIS/ IRAQI PRESIDENT TELLS HIS PEOPLE HE ACCEPTED THE UN RESOLUTION TO AVERT A U.S. ATTACK

Record ID: 640766

  • Title: CYPRUS/FRANCE/IRAQ: CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR HANS BLIX ENROUTE TO BAGHDAD HOLDS TALKS WITH FRENCH OFFICIALS IN PARIS/ IRAQI PRESIDENT TELLS HIS PEOPLE HE ACCEPTED THE UN RESOLUTION TO AVERT A U.S. ATTACK
  • Date: 16th November 2002
  • Summary: (W5) PARIS, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 16, 2002) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINSFLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SLV: EXTERIOR FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTRY PAN: CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR HANS BLIX ARRIVING AT FOREIGN MINISTRY SV: HANS BLIX SHAKING HANDS WITH FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN VARIOUS OF HANS BLIX AND DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN SITTING AND CHATTING (4 SHOTS) SV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR HANS BLIX SPEAKING AFTER TALKS SAYING: "It was not an easy matter and we remember that the resolution from 1999 was not adopted by unanimity, but this time we have the whole council behind us. We are a subsidiary organ of the Security Council to perform the inspections in Iraq. And our strength is directly dependent upon the support, the full support of the security council. With this resolution now adopted by unanimity we feel that now we have that, we know also that if there is not full co-operation by Iraq we will be backed up to the full by the council." MV: MEDIA SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR HANS BLIX SAYING: "Now, it's clear that immediate access is valuable because the Iraqi side could hide documents or smaller things. It is not important for very big things, big weapons or big machinery, but nevertheless, smaller things are also important, especially documents. So, a denial of access, or delayed access, or trying to put something off-bounds for us, this would be a very serious thing." WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE SV: MEDIA AT PRESS CONFERENCE MV: HANS BLIX LEAVING PRESS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 1st December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LARNACA, CYPRUS/ PARIS, FRANCE/ BAGHDAD AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, IRAQ
  • City:
  • Country: Cyprus Iraq France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA2KK61EWCPD4582TNQU1TJNJX
  • Story Text: Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix has held talks with the French government in Paris where he stopped on his way to Baghdad.
    As the United Nations prepared to resume weapons inspections after a four-year halt, the Iraqi president told his people he had decided to accept the tough terms of the U.N. resolution to avert a U.S. attack.
    The United Nations' (U.N.) chief weapons inspector Hans Blix met with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin in Paris on Saturday (16 November) to brief the minister on the schedule for arms inspections in Iraq -- due to resume on November 27 -- and set up a line of communication for the weeks ahead.
    The 74-year-old former Swedish foreign minister will then travel on Sunday (November 17) to Cyprus -- the rear-base for the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) -- and on to Baghdad on Monday, with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed ElBaradei.
    Their first task will be re-opening laboratories, offices and communications facilities and meeting Iraqi officials.
    France played a key role in drawing up U.N. Security Resolution 1441, which orders Iraq to accept an enhanced inspection regime or face "serious consequences," and the government in Paris wants to stay closely abreast of developments in Iraq.
    Iraq, under resolution 1441, adopted on November 8, has to give a "full, accurate and complete" declaration of all its programs and material that can be used to develop chemical, biological and nuclear arms, and ballistic missiles.
    "With this resolution now adopted by unanimity we feel that now we have that, we know also that if there is not full co-operation by Iraq we will be backed up to the full by the council," Blix told reporters at a news conference.
    The resolution says any false information in the declaration and a failure to co-operate with weapons inspectors would constitute a "material breach" -- legal terminology that could trigger an attack by the United States (U.S.) against Baghdad.
    Baghdad, however, insisted in a nine-page letter sent by President Saddam Hussein to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that it doesn't have any such weapons.
    The Iraqi president on Saturday (November 16) told his people he had decided to accept the terms of the U.N.
    resolution to disarm to avert a U.S. attack.
    In a letter addressed to parliament, Saddam said he had mulled the MPs' recommendation that Baghdad reject the resolution, but had chosen to allow arms inspectors back to undermine the United States and foil its plans for war.
    The letter, dated November 12, was read out by the National Assembly speaker at Saturday's parliamentary session.
    It was also broadcast on Iraqi TV and carried by the Iraqi state news agency INA.
    Saddam's letter was followed by a statement from his Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz who said that Iraq would welcome U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and that his new inspections would expose as "lies" U.S. charges that Baghdad has weapons of mass destruction.
    "We are going to expose the truth. The Americans are worried because the truth is going to be exposed and their lies are going to be exposed," Aziz told reporters in Baghdad in one of the first personal statements by the Iraqi leadership since President Saddam Hussein agreed on Wednesday to new inspections.
    "America accuses Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction and these are lies," Aziz said.
    January 27 has been set as the 60-day deadline, for the U.N. inspection team to prepare the first required report to the Security Council.
    A field office in Cyprus has been set up by the U.N. staff ahead of the arrival of Blix and ElBaradei at the seaside resort of Larnaca.
    Located in a hotel close to the airport, the office is expected to assist inspectors travelling to and from the Iraqi capital and facilitate the transit of equipment.
    Blix and ElBaradei will be accompanied by a 25-member advance team charged with re-opening the office in Baghdad used by the previous inspections regime and setting up new secure phone lines, transportation and laboratories before the arrival of the full working team on November 27.
    A United Nations chartered C-130 airplane is on standby at the airport ready to carry the inspection team to Baghdad.
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