USA/UNITED NATIONS: U.N. ARMS EXPERTS HAVE GIVEN A MIXED INTERIM VERDICT ON IRAQI WEAPONS

Record ID: 645651

  • Title: USA/UNITED NATIONS: U.N. ARMS EXPERTS HAVE GIVEN A MIXED INTERIM VERDICT ON IRAQI WEAPONS
  • Date: 8th January 2003
  • Summary: UNITED NATIONS (FILE) (AGENCY POOL) SV REPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK/ UNITED NATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA7OG2DIA4ZWRVYQZ4GGQN057V2
  • Story Text: U.N. arms experts have given a mixed interim verdict on Iraqi weapons, which is likely to provide ammunition both to those backing U.S. preparations for a possible conflict and for the anti-war camp.
    Following a closed door briefing with the Security Council on Iraq, the U.N's chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said that so far his inspection teams had yet to find any evidence Baghdad is stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
    Blix also reported to the Council that Iraq's 12,000 page declaration on it's weapons programme was lacking in detailed information demanded by the resolution.
    Blix told reporters after the meeting, "In the course of these inspections we have not found any smoking gun, however we are getting more and more information and better knowledge about the situation and that the declaration regrettably has not helped very much to clarify any questions of the past."
    During the consultations, the Council and weapons experts discussed how to address the controversial issue of interviewing Iraqi scientists.
    The U.S wants scientists taken out of Iraq to be interviewed, but Blix and Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, Director General of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) said they would prefer to wait until all the practicalities are in place before taking that step.
    Dr ElBaradei said Iraq had not been co-operating with the aspect of the Security Council's resolution which demands that inspectors can conduct interviews in private. He said, "If Iraq is willing to show proactive co-operation we should be allowed to do private interviews inside Iraq, we are also both of the view that should we identify people whom we would like to interview outside of Iraq we will exercise that right, we would like however to continue to work on the practical arrangements to make sure that we have the right people, that these people are ready to be interviewed abroad and that we have the arrangement which would ensure their security outside should they decide to stay abroad or if they would decide to go back to Iraq."
    Blix's and ElBaradei's assessment of Iraq's compliance and the success of inspections so far gave fuel to both sides of the debate within the Security Council membership. While the U.S argues for swift military action should Iraq fail to comply with inspections, other nations, notably France and Russia are keen to head off talk of war.
    Speaking in his capacity as this month's Security Council President, France's Ambassador Jean Marc de la Sabliere, stressed the Council's continuing support for the inspection process. Sabliere said, "Members of the Council reiterated their full support for the work and action of Dr Blix and Dr ElBaradei and for the continuation of inspection activities of UNMOVIC and IAEA."
    France also called on the United States, Britain and others to give the U.N. inspectors intelligence on where to find the weapons that Washington insists Iraq is hiding.
    Blix and ElBaradei will be back before the Council on January 27th, to give a full assessment of Iraq's weapons declaration, to outline what elements are missing.
    While Washington is keen for this date to be seen as a deadline for Iraq to comply with Security Council demands, other nations are trying to tone down the war drums.
    Sir Jeremy Greenstock, U.K Ambassador, argued that war is not necessarily inevitable after the January 27th meeting.
    "I will give you a reason why you shouldn't put too much emphasis on the 27th of January, and that is because the inspectors made it very clear to us that if there is a smoking gun found, or if there is a denial of access or a blocking of the inspectors business then they will come to the Council straight away on that, so by definition the 27th of January won't necessarily produce anything new or dramatic, because if that happened it will come on another day, unless that new information is very recent before the 27th of January, so my advice is calm down on the 27th of January this is a series of reports to the Council," he said.
    Russia, which has long argued that a second resolution would need to be passed by the Council before any war is launched, argued that the work of the inspectors and the briefings at U.N headquarters had been hi-jacked by the U.S, manipulating the inspection teams work to Washington's own end.
    Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov sternly told reporters after the meeting, "I do believe that this should be seen as a professional exercise done by professional people who are presenting their views as they go and that this should not really warrant some political agitation around briefings like this one."
    Germany, which took up it's two year non-permanent seat on the Council this month, firmly placed itself in the anti-war camp, with German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger saying, "We subscribe to the recent statement of the Secretary General that the inspections should continue and for that reason alone there are no grounds for military action."
    U.S. officials took little comfort in the latest report from chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix saying arms experts after two months of looking have found no "smoking gun" proving Iraq has banned weapons.
    When asked by a reporter what would happen if Iraq's behaviour had not altered by January 27th, U.S Ambassador John Negroponte said, "I think that would be an extremely serious matter and I think that they've got to reflect very quickly and urgently upon the responsibilities that they have to comply fully, co-operatively and proactively with resolution 1441."
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