Iraq has not genuinely accepted the UN resolution demanding that it disarm and while Baghdad is cooperating on access, it needs to do more on substance, chief weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix told the Security Council a short time ago.
"Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it," Dr Blix said at the beginning of a crucial assessment on 60 days of weapons inspections.
Blix, head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission said it was not enough for the Iraqis to "open doors."
"It would appear from our experience so far that Iraq has decided in principle to provide cooperation on process, notably access. A similar decision is indispensable to provide cooperation on substance in order to bring the disarmament task to completion, through the peaceful process of inspection, and to bring the monitoring task on a firm course."
Touching on the question of how much time inspectors need, Blix said he shared "the sense of urgency" to achieve disarmament within "a reasonable period of time."
Blix said three questions remain unanswered:
- How much illicit weapons material might remain undeclared and intact from before the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and possibly thereafter.
- What, if anything, was illegally procured or produced.
- How the world can prevent any weapons of mass destruction from being produced or procured in the future.
In his report, Dr Blix noted that Iraq's 12,000 page arms declaration contained little more thanold material previously submitted to inspectors. One exception was an air forcedocument which indicates that Iraq has failed to account for some 6,000 chemicalrockets.
"The finding of the rockets shows that Iraq needs to make more effort to showthat its declaration is currently accurate."
Dr Blix said inspectors also discovered a mustard gas precursor during recentinspections.
He said there were "strong indications"that Iraq produced more anthrax than it admitted and might stillhave some stocks.
He recalled that Iraq had declared that it produced 8,500 litresof anthrax andunilaterally destroyed the stock in the summer of 1991.
There was "no convincing evidence of destruction," he said.
"There are strong indications" that it produced more than itdeclared, and some stocks might sill exist, Dr Blix said.
Iraq has refused to cooperatewith a request from UN weapons inspectors regarding flights of U-2spy planes for aerial imagery and surveillance, he revealed.
Dr Blix wasaccompanied by the director general of the International AtomicEnergy Agency, Mr Mohammed ElBaradei.
UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan said he expected the council togive the inspectors more time to complete their work in Iraq.
"If they do need time, they should be given the time to do theirwork," he said. "I suspect the council will allow for thattime," he added.
The report may be a trigger for a US-led war on Iraq - even though it is unlikely to contain a "smoking gun" - as the United States and Britain say time is running out for Iraq to disarm.
Those two countries face increasing opposition from fellow Security Council members with veto powers - France, Russia and China - but yesterday US Secretary of State Colin Powell said they were prepared to go it alone or wage war in Iraq with a "coalition of the willing".
But at a press conference today Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri accused US Secretary of State Colin Powell of lying and reiterated Iraq was free of any banned weapons.
Mr Sabri said Mr Powell "repeated lies that no one believes anymore" when he accused Iraq over the weekend of developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He also denied Iraq had links with the al Qaeda terror network.Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday Mr Powell said no decision on war would be made before Mr George Bush met British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair at Camp David on Friday.
Agencies