UN inspectors set to begin weapons search

United Nations inspectors were getting down to work today after their four-year absence, meeting Iraqi officials and making plans to once again start searching for hidden chemical, nuclear and biological weapons.

An advance team of inspectors arrived in Iraq yesterday and were expected to meet other UN officials and diplomats based in Baghdad today, before sitting down with their Iraqi counterparts to continue discussions on getting the inspections started again.

The return of the inspectors is widely seen as Saddam’s last chance to avoid a devastating war with the United States. US President George Bush has warned Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein that failure to co-operate with the inspectors will bring on an American attack and that Washington will pursue a policy of “zero tolerance” towards Iraqi infractions.

Iraqi officials promised co-operation, but made clear their hostility towards the UN Security Council resolution that sent the inspectors back with a stricter mandate – to search for weapons wherever they like and talk to whoever they want to determine if Iraq has banned weapons.

In the past, weapons inspectors had to give advance notice of visits to sensitive sites – including eight presidential palace complexes – losing the impact of surprise inspections. How smoothly the two sides would be able to co-operate this time remained to be seen.

The official Iraqi News Agency quoted Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan as saying Iraq accepted the resolution ”despite its injustice” to prove it was free of weapons of mass destruction.

“This resolution is an evil American scheme for an aggression against Iraq,” INA quoted Ramadan as saying during a meeting yesterday with an Austrian delegation.

Saddam’s deputy, Izzat Ibrahim, told INA that Iraq would work with inspectors to protect its people from America, but will fight “if war is imposed on us”.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking during an official visit to Bosnia yesterday, urged Saddam to comply fully with security council demands “for the sake of his people, regional stability and world order”.

He said the arrival of the inspectors signalled a “crucial new phase of disarmament”.

Chief UN inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, who oversees the International Atomic Energy Agency, sat down last night with Gen Hosam Amin, who acted as an Iraqi liaison for past inspectors, and Iraqi presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi in their first official meeting.

After the two-hour meeting, ElBaradei said the two sides had begun to discuss arrangements for the inspections and would continue today. “I think we are making progress,” he said.

Blix and ElBaradei were guests at a dinner hosted by Iraq’s deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, according to a diplomatic source in New York.

Ewen Buchanan, Blix’s chief spokesman, told The Associated Press that yesterday’s talks concentrated on the timeline of the UN resolution and general issues.

“The situation is tense at the moment, but there is a new opportunity and we are here to provide inspection that is credible,” Blix said on arriving in Baghdad. “Inspection that is credible is the only thing that is in the interest of Iraq and in the interest of the world, and we will try to do so.”

He said inspections could begin as early as November 27. Blix then must report to the security council within 60 days about his progress.

“Total co-operation from Iraq is important to us,” said ElBaradei, an Egyptian. “We hope this is going to be the case.” He promised that the inspections would be impartial and in-depth.

Now that the inspectors are back in Iraq, the government must file a detailed report of its banned weapons programmes by December 8, informing the United Nations either where the arms are located, or providing convincing evidence that they no longer exist.

The inspectors must verify that Iraq is free of proscribed weapons before the security council will lift strict economic sanctions imposed after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990.

UN inspectors arrived in the Iraqi capital yesterday as allied warplanes bombed Iraqi air defence systems in the northern no-fly zone after the US military said the jets were fired on during routine patrols. Iraq considers such patrols a violation of its sovereignty and frequently shoots at them.