- UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)
- With threats of war escalating in Washington, the chief U.N. inspector
said on Monday that Iraq would have to provide "convincing" evidence
to prove it no longer had any weapons of mass destruction.
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- Hans Blix, just back from a trip to Baghdad, told the
U.N. Security Council that four years had passed since the last inspections
and that many governments believed that dangerous arms programs remained
in Iraq.
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- Blix, the Swedish chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification
and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC, confirmed inspections would
begin on Wednesday, with 19 arms experts, 11 from his unit and eight from
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in charge of nuclear arms
teams.
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- By Christmas, he hoped to have 100 people on the ground,
he told reporters after briefing the council.
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- "If the Iraqi side were to state as it still did
at our meeting -- that there were no such programs, it would need to provide
convincing documentary or other evidence," Blix said, according to
his speaking notes to the 15-member council.
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- He said earlier declarations Iraq had submitted to the
inspectors "in many cases left an open question whether some weapons
remained" and did not "give a full account."
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- "The production of mustard gas is not exactly the
same as the production of marmalade," he told reporters.
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- "If they want to be believed they had better provide
either the weapons, if they remain, or a better account," Blix said.
"They have their budgets. They have the archives."
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- "They maintained the position that they have no
weapons of mass destruction," Blix said. "I said they should
look into their stores and stocks."
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- Iraq has to submit a declaration to the council by Dec.
8, listing all its weapons programs as well as materials that could be
used as ingredients for nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic arms.
Blix said Iraqi officials raised concerns about the declaration but "I
had the feeling they were going to try to put up a very substantial report."
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- MATERIAL BREACH
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- The United States has said that any errors in the declaration
could be a "material breach" of a Nov. 8 Security Council resolution
and might lead to war. But the other 14 council members, including close
ally Britain, have said that Blix and not Washington would have the final
say about Iraqi violations, which had to include more than the declaration.
-
- Asked if he were being pushed by the United States to
be more confrontational, "Blix said, "We get recommendations
and advice from all countries. We may not be the brightest in the world
but we are in nobody's pocket."
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- China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Yingfan, this month's council
president, said Blix's experiences were "so far so good."
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- Members "stressed we need cooperation from the Iraqi
authorities," Wang said. "We expect full cooperation, full compliance.
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- Blix and his colleague, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the
IAEA, led an advance team to Baghdad last week to reopen offices and make
arrangements for the first group of inspectors, who arrived on Monday.
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- Blix said the Iraq had raised questions about President
Saddam Hussein's presidential sites, remarking that entry into the palaces
"was not exactly the same thing as entry into a factory." The
Dec. 8 resolution 1441 gives the inspectors unfettered entry into the sites.
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- He also Iraq had agreed to his proposal to open a regional
office in Mosul in the north "without delay" because the "largest
number of sites outside the Baghdad region" were in the Mosul area.
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- Among them is one of Saddam's eight presidential palace
areas that were only open to inspectors with special restrictions. Blix
said he would consider an office in Basra in the south at a later date.
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- Iraq during the weekend complained bitterly in a letter
to Annan that the Nov. 8 Security Council resolution on disarmament was
more a blueprint for war than inspections.
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- "The real motive was to create pretexts to attack
Iraq under an international cover," Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said
in the letter.
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