A top Iraqi official said today that Baghdad wants to negotiate the U.N. order to destroy its al-Samoud 2 missiles, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 21).

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix delivered a letter Friday demanding that Iraq begin to destroy all its al-Samoud 2 missiles by March 1.  A panel of U.N. experts found that the missile’s range exceeds the 150-kilometer set by post-Gulf War U.N. resolutions.

“This is being studied very carefully and the channels are still open” between Iraq and the United Nations, Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi said Monday.  “We will come up with a decision quite soon,” he added.

“There is an open dialogue between us and (the weapons inspectors) and we hope that it will be settled,” al-Saadi said.

The top Iraqi liaison to the weapons inspectors said last night that the missiles, in their final forms, will not exceed the 150-kilometer limit.

“The missile was and is still being researched and developed and hasn’t reached its final stage.  The weights are not final,” Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohamed Amin said.  “We have suggested to (the inspectors) that they randomly choose any missile they want and check its range.  We are sure its range will be less,” he added.

Amin said Iraq was waiting for a response from chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix after Baghdad sent him a letter asking that he reconsider his order to destroy the missiles.  A U.N. official in Baghdad, however, said that Blix had answered by ordering the missiles destroyed by the end of this week.

“This is not negotiable,” the official said.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he expects Baghdad to comply with the order.

“If they refused to destroy the weapons, the Security Council will have to make a decision,” Annan said.  “I don’t see why they would not destroy them,” he added (Niko Price, Associated Press/MSNBC.com, Feb. 24).

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