LONDON/UNITED NATIONS, 23 April 2003 — Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said in an interview yesterday that he was disturbed the United States and Britain had used shaky intelligence to justify the war on Iraq.
“We have heard about the alleged contract between Iraq and Niger about the import of some 500 tons” of uranium, Blix told the BBC. “When the IAEA got the contract they had no great difficulty in finding out that this was falsified. I think that is very, very disturbing. Who falsified this? And is it not disturbing that the intelligence agencies that should have all the technical means at their disposal did not discover that this was falsified?”
Asked if he was accusing US and British intelligence services of having falsified documents, Blix said he was not going “that far”.
At the United Nations, key Security Council members maintained sharp differences yesterday over the future role of UN arms inspectors in Iraq, clouding a decision on when to lift economic sanctions against that country.
France suggested an immediate suspension of the sanctions. But Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said the UN oil-for-food program should be kept under UN control for the time being but adjusted to Iraq’s current needs.
Closing the door on UN inspections, US Ambassador John Negroponte said: “For the time being and for the foreseeable future, we see that as a coalition activity.”
But Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov insisted that only UN inspectors had the legal authority to declare Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction. “We all want to know that there is no WMD in Iraq and the only way to verify is to have inspectors in Iraq to see for themselves and report to the Security Council,” Lavrov said. “As soon as they deliver their report, the sanctions can be lifted,” he said.
