WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD, 18 January 2003 — UN inspectors’ discovery of empty chemical warheads in Iraq is “troubling and serious”, the White House said yesterday, but inspections chief Hans Blix downplayed the find as “not a big deal”.
As world leaders waited for more information on the discovery, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein stepped up his defiant rhetoric, warning the US it faced “suicide” if it tried to invade his country. Saddam rallied Iraqis on the 12th anniversary of the 1991 Gulf War with a vow to rout US troops at the gates of Baghdad.
The Iraqi president said he had mobilized his army and drawn up a plan to counter any invasion by the tens of thousands of US soldiers, warplanes and ships now massing in the Gulf. President George W. Bush’s spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said it was “becoming increasingly clear” that Saddam had not disarmed, adding that 11 empty chemical warheads found Thursday did not appear on the list of weapons Iraq had submitted to the United Nations.
“The fact that Iraq is in possession of undeclared chemical warheads which the United Nations says are in excellent condition is troubling and serious,” Fleischer said.
Meanwhile, Blix said he was seeking “more explanations” from Baghdad about the empty warheads found in an Iraqi arms depot. Speaking in Paris after talks with French President Jacques Chirac, he described the discovery as “not a big deal” and urged the world “not to be worried”.
Blix said the munitions were “empty warheads” and would be destroyed after undergoing tests, adding that he was not yet sure whether they had featured in Iraq’s weapons declaration to the UN last month.
The Iraqi statement was filed as part of UN Resolution 1441 which gave Iraq one month to make a complete disclosure of its weapons of mass destruction — or face “serious consequences”. UN spokesman Hiro Ueki said the 11 warheads appeared in “excellent condition” and were undergoing X-ray and chemical analyses.
Baghdad said the warheads were being used as a pretext for war, insisting they were not linked to any prohibited weapons and had been out of use for at least seven years. “These rockets are listed, filmed and documented by this same (UN inspection) commission, and a number of these experts know this very well, but they are looking for a pretext for aggression,” said Ali Hassan Al-Majid, a member of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council and a cousin of Saddam.
Saddam himself warned that the US, which has already begun deploying an estimated 150,000 troops to the Gulf, faces suicide if it invades Iraq. “The people and rulers of Baghdad have resolved to compel the Mongols of this age to commit suicide on its walls,” Saddam said, in a speech marking the 12th anniversary of the outbreak of the Gulf War which ended in his forces being ousted from Kuwait.
Chirac expressed his “full confidence” in the inspectors after the meeting with Blix and Mohamad El-Baradei, head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The French president backed calls to give UN inspections more time to work in Iraq, warning Washington that any use of force must be agreed by the UN Security Council.
World leaders’ reactions to the warheads find was mixed, with Russia, which was briefed by El-Baradei earlier this week, saying it confirmed the inspections were bearing fruit and should be continued. Moscow’s line was echoed by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
“We think that the work of inspectors is giving results,” Berlusconi said during a visit to Zagreb. “Therefore it would be wise to give them more time, to extend their work beyond Jan. 27 all through February.” The European Union is deeply divided on the threat of war. Germany has vowed not to participate in any military action against Iraq, while Britain has sent troops to the Gulf, backing a massive US military buildup in the region.
But Britain too remained cautious yesterday about the discovery of the empty warheads, with Foreign Office minister Mike O’Brien telling BBC radio there would be “no rush to judgment” over whether the warheads constituted a “material breach” of Resolution 1441 of the kind that could trigger military action. Blix also met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair later yesterday at his country residence outside London who expressed his support to the UN inspectors.
Angry scenes, meanwhile, greeted UN experts leaving for more inspections in Iraq, where several hundred Iraqi journalists massed outside the inspectors’ base to mark the Gulf War anniversary, chanting pro-Saddam slogans.
In Damascus, a top Iraqi envoy branded as absurd reports that Saddam was negotiating exile in a sympathetic state. “This is absurdity,” Al-Majid, the cousin of Saddam, told reporters. “It’s a psychological war technique, and if you ask an infant in Iraq he wouldn’t believe such reports.”
Arab countries were debating a Turkish proposal to host a summit in Ankara of most of Iraq’s neighbors and Egypt in what could be a last chance to avert a war against Baghdad. Invitations have gone out to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran, after visits by Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul to all those countries, though the date has not yet been announced, pending their reactions.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher discussed the proposal on the telephone with his Turkish counterpart, Yasar Yakis, Egypt’s official news agency MENA said. (The Independent)
