A rchive Date
[ 22-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.N ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/04/21/70155-ap.html
Blix wants UN experts in Iraq
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Mon, April 21, 2003
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Monday that UN inspectors should return to Iraq to independently verify the discovery of any weapons of mass destruction, but the United States said it sees no immediate role for his teams.
Russia, however, called for UN inspectors to complete their searches and certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been eliminated along with the long-range missiles to deliver them - as required under a Security Council resolution. Blix is scheduled to brief the council Tuesday on the inspectors' readiness to resume work, but the opposing U.S. and Russian views indicate the difficulties ahead as the council starts to grapple with a host of potentially divisive issues regarding postwar Iraq.
These include not only Iraq's disarmament but the future of sanctions imposed after the country's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the UN role in the country now that the fighting is over, control of Iraq's oil revenue and lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Last week, U.S. President George W. Bush called for sanctions to be lifted quickly, so Iraq's oil revenue can be used to finance reconstruction. But under council resolutions, UN inspectors must certify that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed.
The Bush administration, however, blames Blix for hurting its drive for international support in the run-up to the war and has not invited UN inspectors to return. Instead, the United States has deployed its own teams to search for illegal weapons.
"We see no immediate role for Dr. Blix and his inspection teams," Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, said Monday.
But Blix told The Associated Press that the United States should let UN inspectors back to certify their work.
"I think it might be wise for them to get independent verification because it has high credibility," he said when asked about the reported discovery by U.S. teams of ingredients and equipment that can be used to make a chemical weapon.
Secretary General Kofi Annan ordered all UN international staff, including the inspectors, to leave Iraq just before the U.S.-led war began on March 20 for security reasons. He has said he expects them to return.
Russian Deputy Ambassador Gennady Gatilov said there is a need "for an objective international organ to certify the situation."
"In what form it can be done - that can be discussed," he said. "Theoretically and practically, it could be done very easily."
Before the war, Blix and chief nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei said they might need several more months to determine whether Iraq was disarmed. "Now, when there is no regime of Saddam Hussein, it might be much easier to do this job," Gatilov said.
One council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aim of Tuesday's closed session with Blix is to try to connect what is happening on the ground with UN inspections. It isn't clear how sanctions could be eliminated if UN inspectors are barred from returning.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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