Blix questions US motives for Iraq war

With unusual candour, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix today denounced the US-led war on Iraq as a violation of international law, and questioned Washington’s motives for the invasion.

“I cannot see that the action, in the way it was justified, was compatible with the UN Charter,” Blix said in Stockholm, adding that it had undermined the Security Council’s authority.

The 75-year-old former Swedish foreign minister questioned whether Saddam Hussein posed an immediate threat to his neighbours and to the United States.

He said the Bush administration must have had other reasons to invade besides “the officially pronounced purpose to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction.”

“An important element surely was the need to show striking power after the terror attack on the United States on September 11, 2001,” Blix said.

He said it was increasingly improbable that US and British forces would find prohibited weapons in Iraq, noting that they now have searched longer than the weapons inspectors.