LONDON, 7 February 2003 — UN weapons inspectors said yesterday the final countdown had started for Iraq, declaring it must drastically improve cooperation on disarmament or face an unwelcome judgment in a key report to world powers next week.
However, the presentation by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the UN apparently failed to budge world opinion on a possible Iraq war, with most countries standing by their earlier positions.
Four veto-bearing members of the Security Council stood by their earlier statements, with Britain supporting the US position, France opposing it, and Russia and China calling for UN inspectors to be given more time.
As the United States and Britain continued to pour troops into the Gulf for a possible war, the inspectors said their weekend mission to Baghdad to secure full compliance was crucial.
“The message coming from the UN Security Council is very clear, that Iraq is not cooperating fully, that they need to show drastic change in terms of cooperation,” nuclear inspector Mohamed El-Baradei said after he and chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix held talks in London with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“The message also coming from the Security Council is that time is very critical and that we need to show progress in our report which will be due on the 14th of this month.”
Blix and El-Baradei, who have headed more than two months of weapons inspections in Iraq, return to Baghdad at the weekend at the invitation of the Iraqi government. The pair will then deliver a fresh report to the Security Council on Feb. 14.
Blair, Washington’s closest ally, has suggested that date could be a deadline for war, saying this week that he would make his judgments at that time.
Britain is deploying over 100 aircraft backed by 7,100 personnel to the Gulf and Turkey in preparation for possible military action against Iraq, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said yesterday.
El-Baradei, who last month said his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needed a few more months to complete its work in Iraq, suggested time was running short.
“Our mission in Baghdad this weekend is crucial. We hope we will secure full 100 percent cooperation,” he said.
Blix also warned that Iraq had not shown enough support to the inspectors and warned that unless it showed a sudden change of heart, next week’s report to the Security Council would reflect his frustrations.
“What has not worked is for the Iraqi side either to present prohibited items for destruction or present evidence that they are finished,” Blix told reporters after talks with Blair in London.
“We hope at this late hour... that they will come to a positive response. If they do not do that then our report next Friday will not be what we would like it to be.”
In another development, Turkey’s Parliament yesterday gave the United States permission to upgrade an unspecified number of Turkish bases and ports for possible use in a war on neighboring Iraq, a lawmaker told Reuters.
The 550-seat Parliament approved the measure in a session closed to the press and public, a deputy present said. He said the yes votes had come mainly from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The vote is an indicator of the mood in Parliament ahead of a vote set for Feb. 18 on a second measure to allow the US to dispatch troops to the bases, which could then become a springboard for a “northern front” against Baghdad.
Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said earlier yesterday Turkish troops would not take part in any fighting in the possible conflict over banned weapons and said he had not given up hope of a peaceful solution.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac agreed during telephone talks yesterday that only diplomacy can resolve the Iraqi crisis, the Kremlin said.
“After discussing the results of the UN session on Iraq, the two nations’ leaders noted that positions of Russia and France correspond, and stand in favor of solving the Iraqi problem through political-diplomatic means,” the Kremlin said in a statement. Putin, who will fly Monday to Paris for talks with Chirac, agreed with the French leader that the two sides “must continue to closely cooperate” in their efforts to avert a war, the statement said.
In Baghdad, visiting pro-peace European lawmakers rejected US arguments for a war against Iraq and said it was the job of the United Nations to ensure Baghdad possessed no weapons of mass destruction.
Francis Wurtz, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from France who acted a spokesman for the 32-member delegation, also criticized US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s address to the UN Security Council Wednesday.
In another development, an Iraqi scientist sat down yesterday for the first Iraqi interview with UN inspectors without official government monitors being present, a senior Iraqi official said here.
“One of the BW (biological weapons) scientists is now giving an interview privately,” Amer Al-Saadi, a science adviser to President Saddam, told a press conference here.
In Geneva, aid agencies, gearing up for possible war in Iraq, said yesterday that they are rushing experts and life-saving supplies to the region but needed more money to complete the massive task. (Agencies)
