A rchive Date
[ 20-09-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.N ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/12/19/7834-ap.html
Blix briefs U.N.
By EDITH M. LEDERER - Associated Press
Thu, December 19, 2002
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Top U.N. weapons inspectors reported Thursday that Iraq's weapons declaration has gaps and inconsistencies, and the United States immediately declared Iraq in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions.
"This clearly shows that Iraq has spurned its last opportunity," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said. "It fails to address scores of questions pending since 1998, it seeks to deceive when it says Iraq has no ongoing weapons of mass destruction programs."
Later, Secretary of State Colin Powell told a news conference in Washington that Iraq's 12,000-page declaration is "a catalogue of recycled information and flagrant omissions."
"Our experts have found it to be anything but accurate, full or complete," Powell said. "It totally fails to meet the resolution's requirements."
Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to declare Iraq in material breach is not an immediate trigger for war, but rather the beginning of an intense diplomatic campaign to convince allies that Saddam Hussein has violated a U.N. resolution requiring him to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction or face possible military action.
Negroponte spoke after chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, provided the Security Council with initial assessments of the declaration.
"We are consistent in the view that there has been relatively little given in the declaration by way of evidence concerning the programs of weapons of mass destruction," Blix told reporters after the briefing.
Iraq's deputy U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Salmane dismissed the U.S. charges as "baseless," saying: "I would like to confirm that the Iraqi declaration is complete and comprehensive." He said it can be verified on the ground by U.N. inspectors.
Negroponte said Iraq's "practice of omissions, evasions and untruths" was cause for a new "material breach" of its disarmament obligations - diplomatic language that could throw the United States into a war with Iraq.
Britain, American's closest ally, appeared to agree with the U.S. view about the declaration. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that gaps in the dossier are not grounds for war.
The United States initially wanted any false statement or omission in Iraq's declaration to be declared a "material breach," but France and Russia insisted that this be coupled with an Iraqi failure to cooperate on the ground - and they won this point in Resolution 1441 adopted by the Security Council on Nov. 8.
Blix noted inconsistencies in Iraq's biological declaration, noting that the latest report did not include a table that had been provided in 1999 on Baghdad's purchase of material that it used to grow biological warfare agents including anthrax.
This omission "needs to be explained," Blix told the council, according to his briefing notes.
Also, he said Iraq was using chemical equipment destroyed by inspectors before they left in December 1998 and was developing a missile known as the Al Samoud with a range, in 13 flight tests, that exceeded the range permitted under U.N. resolutions.
ElBaradei said Iraq needed to provide answers and evidence regarding Iraq's recent purchase of aluminum tubes. The top U.N. nuclear inspector also found little new in the 12,000-page declaration.
The Bush administration has denounced gaps, omissions and other major troubles with the Iraqi weapons declaration, setting the United States on a course to possible war with Saddam early next year.
Speaking after the meeting, both Blix and ElBaradei complained about the quality of Iraq's report.
"An opportunity was missed in the declaration to give a lot of evidence," Blix said. "They can still provide it orally but it would have been better if it was in the declaration."
ElBaradei noted that the Iraqis have been opening doors for inspectors on the ground but said: "We have not gotten what we need in terms of additional evidence."
The comments were based on initial assessments and both men said they would need more time to review the entire declaration.
Both the American and British ambassadors to the United Nations said they were "deeply disappointed" with Iraq's declaration.
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials said it was the United States, and not Iraq, that needed to worry about the assessments.
"It's the other party that's worried because there's nothing to pin on us," Iraqi general Amir al-Saadi said. He said it was natural U.N. experts would see little new in the declaration because Iraq hasn't restarted weapons programs since their last declarations to U.N. inspectors in the mid- to late 1990s.
Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf and Negroponte met Blix on Tuesday to discuss gaps in the declaration, and Negroponte had another meeting with the chief inspector on Wednesday.
In preparing its declaration, Iraq had a list of outstanding questions prepared by the former U.N. inspection agency and by an international panel of experts. Inspectors left Baghdad in December 1998 and Iraq barred them from returning until last month.
The unanswered questions included: How much anthrax did Iraq actually produce, and was it all destroyed as Baghdad claims? Where are 550 artillery shells that it filled with mustard gas? Why were no remnants found of warheads for 50 long-range missiles that Iraq said it destroyed? What happened to all the deadly VX nerve agent that Iraq produced.
The report by former chief inspector Richard Butler listed biological agents Iraq produced including deadly botullinum toxin, anthrax and ricin; gangrene gas, which rots flesh; and aflatoxin, which causes liver cancer. Baghdad also said it did research on rotavirus, which causes diarrhea; and hemorrhage conjunctivitis virus, which affects the eyes.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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