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Iraq: Scientists Continue to Deny Iraq Developed Banned Weapons Both captured Iraqi WMD scientists and those who are still not in coalition custody are still denying that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, saying such weapons were destroyed years ago, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, May 14). Two Iraqi scientists — Dagher Mahmoud, a former Iraqi deputy minister, and Alaa al-Sayeed, who was involved with Iraq’s VX program — met twice last week with U.S. intelligence officials and once with British intelligence officials, according to AP. At all three meetings Mahmoud and al-Sayeed denied that Iraq had recently been trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. “They asked who was working on these activities — which companies were involved, what did we have before 1991, what did we do afterward,” Mahmoud said of the interrogations by U.S. intelligence officials. “We told them that for many years no one has been working on these matters. They asked if there were more documents that we didn’t submit to the U.N., but we told them nothing more was kept,” he said. U.S. officials have previously said that Iraqi scientists could be lying about their country’s WMD efforts to protect themselves. Al-Sayeed denied such allegations, however, saying that not only were Iraqi scientists motivated to cooperate, but that they also told the former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq that they were willing to do so. Mahmoud said that he and nine others from the Iraqi Military-Industrial Complex met last week with U.S. officials involved in Iraq’s reconstruction after sending several letters to retired Gen. Jay Garner, who was replaced this week as the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq. “We sent a letter to Mr. Jay Garner saying that we want to talk and want to know what they plan to do with us,” al-Sayeed said. John Kincannon, a spokesman with the Office of Reconstruction, refused to comment on what he called “private mail.” “But I’d suggest that, if we’re meeting with him, we’re obviously aware of his concerns,” Kincannon said (Dafna Linzer, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 14). Sanctions Meanwhile, the United States plans to call for a vote next week on a U.N. resolution to lift sanctions against Iraq, officials said yesterday. The United States is willing to consider amendments in the text of the resolution, U.S. officials said, adding that they were optimistic that negotiations would end in the next few days. “We think we should be able to get the support to pass the resolution with amendments to the text,” an official said. The United States might be moving closer to the French position on the sanctions — a temporary suspension, U.N. diplomats said. A potential sticking point may be the length of the suspension, they said. The United States is confident that it will obtain enough support within the Security Council despite the veto ability held by Russia and France, which both opposed the recent war in Iraq, U.S. officials said. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to gain Russian support, according to the Washington Times. Powell said yesterday that the United States and Russia still have “outstanding issues” to settle on the resolution, which Russia has opposed. Russia has said U.N. inspectors must first return to Iraq to verify it no longer possesses weapons of mass destruction before sanctions could be lifted (Nicholas Kralev, Washington Times, May 15). Putin said yesterday that, despite the conflicts over Iraq, the United States and Russia have been able to maintain “the basic foundation” of their relationship. “We have had a lot of arguments but we have successfully overcome our differences and succeeded in maintaining the basic foundation of our bilateral relationship,” Putin said (Straits Times, May 15). U.S. diplomats have said they expect Russia to abstain from the vote on the resolution, which would also give the United States and Great Britain wide latitude to run Iraq and use its considerable oil revenue for at least a year (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, May 15).
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