Blix: UN inspectors 'had leads on Iraqi weapons'

UN inspectors had many questions and leads to pursue on chemical and biological weapons in Iraq when their searches were suspended just before the US-led invasion, chief inspector Hans Blix said in a new report today.

But the US and Britain have barred UN inspectors from returning, deployed their own search teams and not requested any assistance, he said.

In his final report to the Security Council, Blix said UN inspectors found no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction but still had many questions about its chemical and biological programmes when they left.

He said his inspectors didn’t have time to follow up on some late information provided by the Iraqi government – including interviewing a list of Iraqis who helped destroy anthrax after the 1991 Gulf War.

The US and Britain used the claim that Iraq had illegal weapons programmes to justify the war that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime. The failure of US and British teams to find any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in the 11 weeks since combat ended has become a major issue in Washington, London and other international capitals.

US President George W Bush said this weekend that weapons had already been found. As evidence, however, he pointed to two suspected mobile biological laboratories which both the Pentagon and American weapons hunters have said do not constitute arms.

Blix said in his 40-page report that Iraq denied any such units existed and provided UN inspectors “with pictures of legitimate vehicles.” He noted, however, that none of the vehicles in the pictures looked like the trucks found by the US-led teams.

The discrepancy raises questions, said Ewen Buchanan, Blix’s spokesman.

“If the two trucks in question had legitimate function, why did Iraq not declare them or include them in the photo identification guide given to us in March?” Buchanan asked.

Blix, who is retiring after his contract as executive chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, ends on June 30, detailed inspectors’ efforts to discover whether Iraq had banned weapons.

Saddam’s government only allowed UN inspectors back in late November, after a four-year absence, and their searches were suspended on March 18.

“In the period during which it performed inspection and monitoring in Iraq, UNMOVIC did not find evidence of the continuation or resumption of programmes of weapons of mass destruction or significant quantities of proscribed items,” Blix said.

UN inspections uncovered “a small number of undeclared empty chemical warheads which appear to have been produced prior to 1990,” he said.

These were destroyed along with a few other proscribed items and some 70 Al Samoud 2 missiles with a range beyond the 150-kilometre (92-mile) limit allowed under UN resolutions.

Iraq’s cooperation with UN inspectors started improving in late January but while inspectors got “a better understanding of past weapons programmes,” he said, “little progress was made in the solution” of outstanding disarmament issues”.

For example, he said, extensive excavations by the Iraqis, which were witnessed by UN inspectors, showed that a large number of R400 bombs containing biological agent which Iraq had said were destroyed “were, in fact, destroyed”.

While valuable in pointing to “the credibility” of previous Iraqi information, the excavations “could not verify the total quantities of biological agent destroyed, and even less, the total quantities produced,” Blix said.

Blix said UNMOVIC inspectors are ready to resume work. The Security Council said in the resolution adopted on May 22 that it would address the mandate of the UN inspectors sometime in the future.

The council is expected to discuss Blix’s report on Thursday.