A rchive Date
[ 10-01-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.N ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/01/09/9863-ap.html
Blix: Iraq violated U.N. sanctions
By EDITH M. LEDERER - Associated Press
Thu, January 9, 2003
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. weapons inspectors said Thursday they have not found any "smoking guns" and want more cooperation from Iraq, especially on allowing scientists who might have knowledge of Iraqi weapons programs to be interviewed in private.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix also told the U.N. Security Council that Iraq had acknowledged importing parts for its missile program, a violation of U.N. sanctions.
Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, who leads nuclear inspections in Iraq, told the council they need more time in their search. Baghdad, they said, had not taken a "proactive" approach, failing to answer outstanding questions or give full lists of scientists whom inspectors want to interview.
"We are not able to have interviews in Iraq in private and that does not show the proactive cooperation we seek," ElBaradei said after he and Blix briefed the council on the progress of inspections and assessments of Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration.
Blix told the council that Iraq has not made a "serious effort" to respond to his request for scientists' names. Blix said that after two months of inspections "covering the country in ever wider sweeps ... we haven't found any smoking guns."
But he told the council that "absence of a smoking gun and the prompt access which we have had so far ... is no guarantee that prohibited stocks or activities could not exist at other sites, whether above ground, underground or in mobile units."
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte called on Iraq to admit to weapons programs "it maintains, even today." "Anything less is not cooperation and will constitute further material breach," Negroponte said, using diplomatic language that could pave the way for war.
In Baghdad, Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison officer to the inspection teams, said that a U.N. inspector had raised the possibility - without making a formal request - of taking Iraqi scientists to Cyprus for questioning. He said scientists could decide for themselves whether to go but that they were expected to refuse.
Blix told reporters earlier that he hadn't heard of such a request but planned to conduct interviews in the near future. Negroponte said the United States expected inspectors to "to begin out-of-country interviews."
"The burden remains on Iraq to demonstrate compliance," Negroponte said, adding that inspectors are there to "verify Iraqi disarmament, not to serve as detectives working to overcome elaborate concealment mechanisms."
During Blix's briefing to the Security Council, he said Iraq had admitted in its weapons declaration to importing missile engines and raw material for the production of solid missile fuel. "This import has taken place in violation of the relevant resolutions regulating import and export to Iraq."
ElBaradei said inspectors were investigating what happened to 32 tons of HMX high explosive that Iraq says was turned into industrial explosive but which can also be used to detonate nuclear weapons.
Other members of the council echoed the inspectors' call for more time to root out any weapons programs. "We're asking (the inspectors) to step up the intensity of what they're doing. But they've got to do it professionally, and they need time," British ambassador Jeremy Greenstock told reporters.
"We have to give enough time for the inspection to finish their goals according to the 1441 resolution," said Syrian ambassador Mikhail Wehbe, the only Arab member on the council.
The inspectors are to give a formal report on Iraq's compliance on Jan. 27. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that date should not be seen as a deadline for conflict. "We are in the middle of a process. The U.N. inspectors have just, at the beginning of the year, got their full complement of inspectors there," Blair told government ministers in London on Thursday, according to his spokesman.
French President Jacques Chirac, two days after telling his armed forces to be ready "for all eventualities," said Thursday he hoped the Iraq crisis would be resolved peacefully, with military action only as a last resort.
The United States, backed by Britain, has threatened military action against Iraq if it does not comply with U.N. demands and rid itself of programs for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Blix said Iraq's arms declaration "failed to answer a great many questions" and that Baghdad has since failed to respond to his requests for answers. "Iraq may have more to say. I hope so," he said.
In Baghdad, Amin denied inspectors had submitted any questions and said Iraq had shown that it no longer has any weapons of mass destruction. For much of the Security Council, the issues of Iraqi cooperation with inspectors and evidence of clandestine Iraqi weapons programs are considered crucial to support for any military action.
Asked whether inspectors were getting significant intelligence from the United States, Blix said: "Well, we are getting intelligence from several sources and I will not go into the operative part of that, but it's clear that this will be helpful in the future to us."
"As more intelligence comes in, there will be more sites visited. I'm confident that we will get more intelligence."
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said his government wants the council to comply with Resolution 1441, adopted Nov. 8, which asks all countries to provide information on Iraq's "prohibited programs" and recommend sites to be visited and Iraqis to be interviewed.
Secretary of State Colin Powell told The Washington Post for Thursday's editions that in the past few days, the United States has begun giving inspectors "significant intelligence" that has enabled them to become "more aggressive and to be more comprehensive in the work they're doing."
But Washington is holding back some information to see if inspectors "are able to handle it and exploit it. ... It is not a matter of opening up every door we have," Powell said.
The United States has promised to share information with inspectors, as long as U.S. intelligence sources aren't compromised. "We have and will continue to provide information to the inspectors," a U.S. official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Britain opened a channel weeks ago to provide the inspectors with information and "they are getting all that we can usefully give," a British official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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