UNITED NATIONS/BAGHDAD, 10 January 2003 — Chief UN inspector Hans Blix said yesterday his arms teams had not found “any smoking guns” in Iraq during their search for weapons of mass destruction but reaffirmed Iraq’s 12,000-page arms declaration was flawed.

“We now have been there for some two months and have been covering the country in ever-wider sweeps, and we haven’t found any smoking guns,” he told reporters. But he said he expected to conduct interviews with scientists and others within about a week to try to get more information.

Blix and his counterpart Mohamed El-Baradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, briefed the Security Council behind closed doors on their assessments of Iraq’s 12,000-page weapons declaration, submitted on Dec. 7. “We think that the declaration failed to answer a great many questions,” Blix said. “A more profound reading of the text has now confirmed the impression.”

Oil prices rose after his comments, which dealers believed could move Washington, which is building up forces in the Gulf area, closer carrying out a threat to attack to end any banned weapons programs. No new data has arrived from Iraq since Blix gave a preliminary evaluation of the document on Dec. 19. At that time he set out numerous gaps in information on chemical and biological arms, providing fresh ammunition for Washington’s case for war.

But Iraq denied there were gaps in its arms declaration and an official Iraqi newspaper said Washington and London had formed an “axis of deception,” a play on President George W. Bush’s “axis of evil” comment last year in which he accused Iraq, Iran and North Korea of harboring dangerous weapons. “Saying that information and proof exist but this lowly axis does not want to declare them are lies and deception because it (the intelligence) does not exist,’’ said the Al-Thawra daily, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath Party.

Blix said his weapons teams would begin interviewing scientists and other Iraqi experts shortly. But he did not say whether the Iraqis would be taken out of the country, perhaps to Cyprus, for that purpose, as the United States wants. “This remains one of the options and I’m sure we will begin some interviews very soon, within a week or so,” Blix said.

“There are several options on how you conduct the interviews that the Security Council has given us and we will make use of what is appropriate in each case.” Although Blix, in charge of chemical, biological and ballistic weapons inspectors, has not begun interviews, some have been conducted by El-Baradei’s nuclear arms experts. Iraq, to the dismay of some UN officials, has sent minders to these talks, saying that those interviewed wanted them there.

This will make it difficult for a scientist or government official agreeing to an interview in private for fear of retaliation, the officials said.

El-Baradei said he was going to Washington today to meet Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to discuss Iraq as well as North Korea where his inspectors, monitoring a nuclear reactor, have been expelled.

Hours before the briefing at the Security Council, Iraqi presidential adviser Gen. Amer Al-Saadi said Iraq would complain about some “unjustified” actions by the arms inspectors when Blix and El-Baradei visit Baghdad, where they are due on Jan. 19-20. The inspectors asked “unjustified” questions while visiting military bases not linked to alleged weapons of mass destruction, he told visiting South African peace activists. “And we intend to clarify this with Dr. Blix and Dr. El-Baradei when they come next week.”

Saadi added that the experts had asked questions pertaining to, among others, the chain of command and changes that had occurred at the sites during the past few years. “(At) a military base, at such a time, when Iraq is threatened with (a US-led) invasion, to ask these questions is a bit much,” he said. d these “could be individual oversights from inspectors, ignorance,” and “it should be clarified.”

It was the first time Baghdad said it would seek clarifications about the inspectors’ work since President Saddam Hussein charged on Monday that the arms experts were, under US pressure, engaging in intelligence activity.

Bad weather forced UN inspectors to abandon aerial searches of suspect sites yesterday, but experts on the ground pushed ahead with a hunt for alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Witnesses said three UN helicopters carrying inspectors had to turn back to Baghdad due to bad weather conditions over northwestern Iraq. The aircraft, accompanied by two Iraqi helicopters, had flown for about an hour. (The Independent)