Iraq holds back on missile destruction

IRAQ has withheld a decision on a United Nations order to start destroying its Al Samoud 2 missile programme by the end of the week, but said yesterday that it is “serious about solving this”.

Iraq’s chief liaison to UN weapons inspectors insisted Baghdad is “clean” of weapons of mass destruction and there should be no new UN resolution on disarming Saddam Hussein, as the United States demands.

At a packed news conference in Baghdad’s Information Ministry last night, Lieutenant General Hossam Mohamed Amin gave Iraq’s first official comment on an order by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix that it must dismantle its Al Samoud 2 missile programme.