AL-AMIRIYAH, Iraq, 28 November 2002 — Digging into Iraqi computers, surveying scenes with detectives’ eyes, UN specialists finally got down to the business of weapons inspection yesterday at the start of a demanding, months-long job that could make or break peace in the Middle East.
On their first day, the international inspectors revisited an Iraqi missile testing site and its nearby graphite rod factory and a motor plant potentially linked to nuclear activities. They sounded satisfied with Iraqi attitudes. "We hope the Iraqi response today represents the future pattern of cooperation," said Jacques Baute, the nuclear inspectors’ leader.
The Iraqi side also sounded a business-like note. "We opened doors and submitted to inspection openly," said Ali Jassam Hussein, director of the missile site here along the Euphrates River, 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
The UN teams did not immediately disclose any significant new findings from their surprise inspections. They may never do so. In the volatile atmosphere surrounding Iraq, the inspectors are expected to leave it to their New York and Vienna agency chiefs to inform the world of serious problems in the campaign to strip Iraq of any capability in chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Those tensions sharpened on the inspectors’ first working day when an air-raid siren wailed in Baghdad, and Iraqi officials said a "hostile flight" had overflown the capital. The US military, whose warplanes have routinely patrolled Iraqi airspace since the 1991 Gulf War, had no comment.
The United States has warned it will disarm Iraq by force if the inspections fail, with or without international help. Most other governments say only the UN Security Council can authorize such a move.
The UN teams will continue their field missions daily — difficult, detailed inspections of hundreds of sites. They’ve resumed under Security Council mandate after a four-year break, to assess whether the Baghdad government is still committed to chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
In New York, Norway’s UN Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby, who chairs the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Iraq, said it appeared the first day’s inspections had gone well. "I think that was very positive," he said. "It looks to me as so far so good — that they carried out inspections. That’s what we all hoped for. Soon there will be more inspectors, and then they will carry on and we’ll see." (AP)
