|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Iraq I: U.S., U.N. Officials Wait to Learn More on Warhead Find U.N. and U.S. officials have taken a wait-and-see approach to yesterday’s discovery of a number of empty Iraqi chemical warheads. A U.N. spokesman said the discovery is not yet regarded as “a smoking gun” that Iraq has continued to develop weapons of mass destruction, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Jan. 16). U.N. inspectors yesterday discovered 11 empty 122 mm chemical warheads, along with one warhead that required further testing, that were not listed in the declaration Iraq submitted to the U.N. Security Council on its weapons of mass destruction, U.N. officials said. While the discovery appears to place Iraq in violation of U.N. resolutions, both Bush administration officials and U.N. officials have so far played down the find’s significance, according to the Post. “This was an important discovery. This was clearly something they should not have had,” a U.N. official said. Inspectors did not immediately determine, however, that the warheads are “a smoking gun that proves conclusively Iraq is hiding” or producing chemical weapons, the official added (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, Jan. 17). Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said today that he was “not worried” that the warheads’ discovery could be used as potential rationale for an attack on Iraq. “There are no chemical weapons inside them. However, clearly they were designed to carry chemical weapons. I think we should destroy them, that’s the rules,” Blix said. Iraq needs to provide more information to inspectors about the warheads, Blix said. “What I see from the American reaction is that they too would like to have a little further information about it, and so I’m not so worried,” he added (John Leicester, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 17). U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte said yesterday that he could not assess the significance of the discovery without further information (Financial Times, Jan. 17). Other U.N diplomats debated yesterday’s find, according to the Los Angeles Times. Some said that the warheads should not be considered chemical weapons if they do not contain agent, while others say Iraq is required under U.N. resolutions to disarm itself of even the capabilities to deliver such weapons. “Why keep the warheads if you say you don’t have the chemical agents?” a Security Council diplomat asked (Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 17). Iraqi Gen. Hussam Mohamed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison with inspectors, dismissed the discovery yesterday, saying Iraq had merely forgotten to include the warheads in its declaration. The warheads were overlooked because they were kept in a box similar to those used to store conventional 122 mm warheads, Amin said. “Nobody opened this box,” Amin said during a press conference held shortly after inspectors announced their discovery. “There was no intention to keep them,” he added (Chandrasekaran, Washington Post). The warheads might never have been filled with chemical agents, they might have been filled but emptied prior to 1998 or they might have been filled and emptied recently, said Raymond Zilinskas, director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. If the warheads had been filled and emptied recently, “that would be a very serious issue because the Iraqis have declared that they don’t have any of the stuff, and that could lead to ‘material breach’ being declared under [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1441,” Zilinskas said, referring to the resolution that established the current inspections regime. If the warheads had never been filled, however, it would be “a very, very small story,” because it would only mean that a small number of warheads had escaped destruction during past inspections, he said (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Jan. 17). Bush administration officials have expressed more interest in a number of documents taken yesterday from the home of Iraqi physicist Faleh Hassan, according to the Washington Post. Hassan, director of the Razi military installation, which specializes in laser development, argued briefly with inspectors before traveling with them to U.N. headquarters, the Post reported. Iraqi officials were present while Hassan was questioned and they were given copies of the Arabic-language documents (DeYoung/Pincus, Washington Post, Jan. 17). Blix to Baghdad U.N. inspectors believe that Iraqi WMD personnel are an important source of information and are planning to conduct more personal interviews, Blix said yesterday during a meeting with European officials in Brussels en route to a meeting in Baghdad scheduled to begin Sunday (see GSN, Jan. 15). “A precondition for the interviews to be credible will be that the persons can talk without feeling intimidated,” Blix said. “If Iraq is absolutely sure that there is nothing that they have to hide, then they should be anxious that the interviewees could speak without intimidation,” he added. Calling the situation “very tense and very dangerous,” Blix said he would urge Iraq during his visit to cooperate with inspections (Farley, Los Angeles Times). Security Council Debate Meanwhile, the United States resisted calls from other countries yesterday for the U.N. Security Council to approve any future military action against Iraq, according to the New York Times. “A unilateral military operation against Baghdad that is not sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council is capable only of worsening the already difficult situation in the region,” Interfax quoted Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov as saying. U.S. President George W. Bush has agreed to consult with the Security Council, but has retained the option of attacking Iraq without a second U.N. resolution, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. “The president will continue to work with other nations on this matter,” Fleischer said. “And many nations have already weighed in and said they don’t think a second resolution is necessary. And whether someone thinks a second resolution is necessary, or whether a different nation says a resolution is not necessary, the president will continue to work with one and all to build a coalition of the willing,” he added. British Prime Minister Tony Blair also expressed support for a second resolution, but left open the possibility of military action without one. “Of course we all want a second U.N. resolution. I believe we will get one,” Blair said, but “where there is an unreasonable veto put down, we will not rule out action,” he added (Stevenson/Sanger, New York Times, Jan. 16). Ousting Hussein Saudi Arabia is encouraging the Iraqi military to oust Hussein and his ruling circle, according to Time (see GSN, Jan. 9). The plan requires a U.N.-provided amnesty for most Iraqi officials if they participate in the coup, Western and Arab diplomats said. The amnesty would extend to all but 100 to 200 of the most senior Baath party officials and would be offered shortly before any military action, according to Time. To secure international support for the plan, the amnesty would be conditioned on the officials’ full and active cooperation with implementing U.N. disarmament resolutions. “If there is amnesty for the rest of the government, Saddam will be checkmated,” a diplomat said. Saudi Arabia has launched its plan to oust Hussein, in part, because of concerns that the United States will do little to rebuild Iraq after an invasion, diplomats said. Arab leaders have little faith in the various exiled Iraqi opposition groups and believe that a brand-new regime would have little chance of surviving, Time reported. “If things go wrong, the troops will get back on their ships and leave,” an Arab diplomat said. “We in the region will be left with the consequences. It will be a never-ending story,” the diplomat added. Arab diplomats are concerned that the United States will only see the Saudi plan as a delay tactic and will not support it. Western diplomats, however, have said the Saudi plan is similar to U.S. thoughts on removing Hussein. “Politically, there would be nothing better for President Bush than to remove Saddam and disarm Iraq without firing a shot,” a Western diplomat said. “All along, Washington’s hope has been that as pressure gets high enough, the people around Saddam will take matters into their own hands,” the diplomat added (Scott Macleod, Time, Jan. 16). Inspections U.N. inspectors have visited at least three suspect Iraqi sites today, according to Reuters. Chemical experts from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission visited the Fallujah 1 and Fallujah 2 sites northwest of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. UNMOVIC biological inspectors visited al-Saweira, about 30 miles south of Baghdad (Reuters, Jan. 17). Yesterday, inspectors visited at least nine sites, according to an IAEA press release. UNMOVIC missile inspectors visited the al-Nidaa State Company and held technical discussions with site personnel to verify information obtain during previous inspections. They also visited the Nissan 17 Factory in Baghdad, which produces components for the al-Samoud ballistic missile, according to the IAEA release. UNMOVIC chemical inspectors visited storage facilities located at the Rasheed State Company for Production of Construction and Building Materials (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Jan. 16). For further information, see:
| ||||||||||
Back to top
