- LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A London-based newspaper reported on Thursday
that tests conducted in Europe to determine whether Iraqi missiles were
armed with a deadly gas before the 1991 Gulf War have shown the warheads
did not contain the VX chemical agent. Al-Hayat daily said it learned from
diplomatic sources that ``Switzerland and France have unofficially informed
officials in Iraq and at the United Nations secretariate that most of tests
of the samples of the Iraqi warheads...showed they were free of the VX
agent.'' The sources, asserting that the results were not yet complete,
said the results contradicted conclusions reached by U.S. laboratories,
al-Hayat reported. U.N. weapons Inspector Richard Butler requested the
analysis after Iraq disputed the findings of a first series of tests carried
out in July by a U.S. Army laboratory. In Paris, a foreign ministry spokesman
confirmed the analysis by a private French laboratory had been completed
and the results sent on to the United Nations Special Commission. But he
refused to disclose the findings or to comment on the al-Hayat report.
``UNSCOM asked for the analysis, and it is up to UNSCOM to decide what
to do with the results,'' the spokesman said. Al-Hayat reported that high-ranking
sources involved with the Iraqi weapons file as saying that the findings
were likely to embarass the United States. Iraq and the United Nations
seem set on a collision course over arms inspections after the U.N. Security
Council resolution decided to suspended its regular review of sanctions
imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. On Wednesday Baghdad
threatened to halt all activities by U.N. inspectors unless the Security
Council cancelled the resolution. The U.S. State Department warned Iraq
against ceasing cooperation with the inspection team.
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