UN Members to United States: Let Inspectors Into Iraq
Thu June 5, 2003 06:37 PM ET
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Security Council members, including Britain, tried to convince the United States on Thursday to allow U.N. arms inspectors back into Iraq, but Bush administration officials shrugged off the appeal.
The failure of the United States and its close ally Britain to find unconventional weapons after 11 weeks of searching has developed into a political issue in both countries with the Bush administration defending intelligence used to justify the war. Prime Minister Tony Blair has had to do the same as parliamentarians press for an inquiry.
At issue is a global credibility problem, with accusations that the United States fabricated evidence and Britain went along with it, unless a neutral body verifies any discovery of weapons.
In his last address to the 15-nation body before resigning at the end of June, Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector said Saddam Hussein's government might have destroyed or concealed weapons and now the truth could come out.
"There remain long lists of items unaccounted for but it is not justified to jump to the conclusion that something exists just because it is unaccounted for," Blix said.
But he, as well as most council members said whatever U.S.-led teams found in Iraq should be verified by international experts.
"I believe we all have to do everything possible and we have to do it together," Blix told reporters. "However I think that anybody that functions under an occupation by a few foreign states cannot have the same credibility internationally as inspectors.
U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said there were no plans to let the U.N. inspectors back into Iraq.
"What we've said all along is that since March 17 or 18, the coalition has taken on responsibility for inspections and the search for the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," he said. "But for the time being, we have undertaken this mission of searching for WMD and I would expect that situation to continue for the foreseeable future."
While council members believed the U.N. weapons inspection team should remain in business even after the Iraqi arms situation is resolved both Syria and Pakistan spoke against it, diplomats said.
British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock appealed for patience and said he believed the U.N. commission would be a great help in "completing the overall business of accounting for Iraq's weapons." A British official said London was doing its best to convince the United States on inspections.
Asked why all council members except Washington wanted to discuss the future of U.N. inspections, Greenstock said, "Even the closest ally cannot answer for the United States."
French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere asked why the Bush administration wanted to wait at all before considering the return of inspectors.
"There is no reason to deprive ourselves any longer of the experience and skills acquired over the past 12 years," he told council members, according to his speaking notes.
Blix, the executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission or UNMOVIC, retires to his native Sweden shortly "to pick my mushrooms."
His teams returned to Iraq Nov. 27, 2002, and left on March 18 on the eve of the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam.
Blix said he sympathized with the searches undertaken by U.S.-led teams, saying U.N. inspectors had found few new weapons since 1994. But also he wondered why, if Iraq really had no dangerous arms, Saddam Hussein put his country through "the misery of sanctions" for so many years.
((Reporting by Evelyn Leopold; Editing by Chris Wilson; Reuters
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