Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2
|
posted
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,76626,00.html
Blix: Iraq Has Not 'Genuinely' Accepted Disarmament
Monday, January 27, 2003
UNITED NATIONS — Iraq has not genuinely accepted the U.N. demand that it disarm, Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix said Monday in his highly anticipated report to the Security Council.
Blix said the Iraqis have been cooperating with weapons inspectors, but Baghdad appears "not to have come to a genuine acceptance of the disarmament demanded of it, and which it needs to carry out."
Blix also said Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration was mostly a "reprint of earlier documents," and didn't appear to include any information that would eliminate or reduce the questions about its weapons programs.
Arriving at U.N. headquarters Monday morning, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Security Council to give the weapons inspectors more time to finish their job.
"If they do need time, they should be given the time to do their work," Annan told reporters. "I'm not saying forever," he added.
The U.S. and Britain have insisted that further inspections would be futile, but France said last Monday that it would veto any resolution authorizing immediate military action.
Blix, a 74-year-old Swede with decades of experience in the field of disarmament, is addressing the open council meeting first.
He spent much of the weekend personally writing his 16-page report which will deal with Iraq's failure to address key questions on the fate of chemical and biological agents such as VX and anthrax that it succeeded in weaponizing on the eve of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
"I have been working very hard and very carefully on the details," Blix told The Associated Press. His staff said the speech would be stronger than originally anticipated because the Iraqis have failed to be forthcoming about information long sought by inspectors.
On Monday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said that his nation has cooperated fully with weapons inspectors and he accused the United States and Britain of setting the stage for an unjustified attack.
He said accusations against Iraq by U.S. officials were "all lies to hide America's true intentions" which he said were to take control of his nation's oil resources and protect "America's interests in Israel."
Despite assurances from Iraq that it would encourage its scientists to submit to private interviews, no such interviews have taken place and Baghdad continues to block inspectors from using a U-2 reconnaissance plane that could be helpful in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
In addition, U.N. teams found thousands of pertinent documents hidden in the home of an Iraqi scientist, at least 16 empty and undeclared chemical warheads and illegally imported parts for its missile program.
ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has prepared a 20-page report in which he intends to make the case for continued inspections.
"We're just in mid-course and we still need to exhaust the option of inspections before we think of any alternatives," ElBaradei told AP on Sunday. "We still need more time and that depends obviously on how intensive our work is and how cooperative Iraq is."
The administration, convinced that Iraq has already failed to meet its obligations in Security Council Resolution 1441, drafted by Washington and adopted in November, is playing close attention to the speeches.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte is expected to respond to the reports once Monday's session moves behind closed doors. An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ambassador would focus more on Iraq's obligations than on the inspectors' findings.
"He will remind the council that they all agreed in November that this would be Iraq's last opportunity to comply and that two months is more than enough time to test Saddam's intentions to cooperate," the official told AP.
Under Resolution 1441 inspectors don't need to prove Iraq is rearming.
Any false statements or omissions in Iraq's arms declaration, coupled with a failure to comply with and cooperate fully in the implementation of the resolution, would place Baghdad in "material breach" of its obligations — a finding that could open the door for war.
In Davos, Switzerland, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that he believed the inspections had run their course, though he did not explicitly call for their end.
Most of the Security Council believes that's a determination they must make based on the inspectors' assessments. The 15 members of the Security Council will reconvene Wednesday, a day after President Bush delivers the State of the Union address, to discuss the inspectors' reports and begin debate on Iraq.
In Brussels, Belgium, Security Council members France, Britain, Spain and Germany agreed Monday that U.N. arms inspectors be given more time if it is needed to ensure Baghdad's compliance with disarmament demands. Officials said that recommendation would likely be echoed later Monday at a meeting of all 15 EU foreign ministers.
The EU is struggling to craft a single policy on Iraq by marrying Britain's stance, which is largely backing the United States, with the more conciliatory approach of France and Germany, which insist military action can only come after another U.N. Security Council resolution.
Sources said the EU was expected to issue an appeal later in the day to Saddam to disarm unconditionally and become more cooperative with arms inspectors.
"Time is running out for Saddam Hussein. He has had a lot of time — 12 years — to comply fully with the obligations of the Security Council. We'll make decisions about exactly how much time in the light of the report at the United Nations later today," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters.
While Blix and ElBaradei have criticized Iraq over the past 60 days, they have also praised the access inspectors were given at hundreds of sites, including presidential palaces, as well as Iraq's cooperation in the areas of logistics and supplies.
Blix's report will focus on Iraq's biological, chemical and missile programs but what inspectors have learned so far is far less than they had hoped to know by now.
Unanswered is whether Iraq really destroyed all of its deadly chemical and biological agents.
Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration has been of little help. Two weeks after he received the dossier in December, Blix slammed the Iraqis for submitting a report filled with inconsistencies, contradictions and old material
--------------------
God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged | 
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
