[Peace-discuss] Blix's comments on War to BBC

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Blix criticises US 'impatience' 
Former chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has expressed regret over US 
"impatience" to go to war with Iraq - and suggested Washington had little 
interest in peaceful disarmament from the outset. 
"The resolution (on Iraqi disarmament) that was adopted last autumn was 
extremely demanding and perhaps (the Americans) doubted that the Iraqis would 
go along with it and you would have a clash from the beginning," Mr Blix told 
the BBC's Today Programme shortly before US-led operations in Iraq began. 

Mr Blix, who headed the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and 
Inspection Commission (Unmovic), said he was very disappointed that 
inspections were aborted. 


I somewhat doubt that when (the Security Council) got the resolution last 
November they really intended to give under three-and-a-half months for 
inspections 
Hans Blix 
"We had made rapid start," he said. "We did not have any obstacles from the 
Iraqi side in going anywhere. They gave us prompt access and we were in a 
great many places all over Iraq." 
The former chief inspector also pointed out that his teams had secured the 
destruction of some of Iraq's al-Samoud missiles. 

But the Americans "lost patience some time at the end of January or the 
beginning of February," Mr Blix said. 

He suggested that Washington was "doubtful from the beginning" about the 
process. 

"I somewhat doubt that when (the Security Council) got the resolution last 
November they really intended to give under three-and-a-half months for 
inspections," Mr Blix said. 

Dubious tips 

Mr Blix also criticised the information US and other intelligence services 
passed on to Unmovic and the IAEA - the UN's nuclear watchdog agency. 

He said few experts believed that aluminium tubes imported by Iraq were 
designed for were designed for centrifuges to enrich uranium. 

"And you had the even more flagrant case of the contracts that Iraq was 
alleged to have tried to conclude with Niger about the importation of raw 
uranium (...) and the IAEA found that it was a fake." 

Mr Blix added that Unmovic found little at the sites pointed out by 
intelligence services - which, he said, further undermines their credibility. 

But the fact that the inspectors' mission was brought to a sudden end did not 
prove its irrelevance, Mr Blix contended. 

"I didn't find that any of the (UN) diplomats here doubt that inspections 
will be very useful in the future," he insisted. 

Mr Blix said the mission had showed that it was possible to have a UN 
inspection regime that was truly international and independent from the 
intelligence services of member states. 

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/2867913.stm

Published: 2003/03/20 11:56:36

© BBC MMIII