December 19, 2002
The UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said today that Iraq's arms declaration contains little new information about its weapons of mass destruction capability.
Mr Blix said there was "not much information" about Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes in the Iraqi dossier, ahead of delivering his official report to a closed session of the UN security council in New York.
"There is a good bit of information about non-arms related activities. Not much information about the weapons," he said.
But the head of the UN's monitoring, verification and inspection commission stopped short of saying that the 12,000 page document breaches the UN resolution that threatens Baghdad with force if it fails to disclose its weapons of mass destruction.
He added that weapons inspectors had received "proper access to sites" and a "good deal of help on the logistical side" from the Iraqi regime.
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, is due to respond to Mr Blix's findings later today. But it remains unclear whether Washington will declare Iraq in "material breach" of the resolution that orders Saddam to tell the truth about his weapons and cooperate with checks - language that could ultimately lead to war.
Earlier today the Syrian government said that it would boycott the security council session on the Iraqi weapons declaration in protest against receiving an incomplete copy of the dossier.
Syria sent its edited copy of the document back to the UN inspection commissions yesterday, saying it wanted the same uncensored version supplied to the five permanent security council members.
The council's five permanent members - the US, China, Russia, Britain and France - obtained the full document more than a week ago.
The moves came after MPs criticised the US and British governments for concluding the Iraqi dossier contains serious omissions ahead of the security council briefing by Mr Blix and Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the international atomic energy authority.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, yesterday described Iraq's claims to have scrapped its chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes as an "obvious falsehood".
Washington also expressed concern about omissions and "problems" in the declaration.
But the Commons' foreign affairs select committee described these comments as "unhelpful".
In a report published today the committee warns that military strikes against Iraq would encourage recruitment to al-Qaida.
Labour MP Donald Anderson, the committee's chairman, said: "We have chosen the UN route, we must follow the UN route where it leads and keep scrupulously to it," adding that Mr Straw's reaction was "understandable, but not helpful in the circumstances."
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
