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| Sunday, 23 February 2003 |
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UN tells Iraq: Start scrapping missiles by March 1 UNITED NATIONS, Saturday (Reuters) Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix demanded on Friday that Iraq begin by March 1 to destroy its Al-Samoud 2 missiles, along with their engines and warheads, in a key test of Iraq's willingness to comply with U.N. demands. Destruction of the missiles would be a blow to Iraq as it prepares for a possible invasion by U.S. forces. If it does not destroy them, the United States and Britain would use this as proof that Iraq was not cooperating with the United Nations and that war was justified. "The appropriate arrangements should be made so that the destruction process can commence by March 1, 2003," Blix said in a letter, obtained by Reuters, to Amir al-Saadi, a senior adviser to President Saddam Hussein. The letter, distributed to Security Council members, said an expert panel Blix organized had concluded that the Al-Samoud 2 missiles exceeded by 33 km (20 miles) the 150 km (90 miles) range set by the U.N. Security Council in a 1991 resolution. Blix said Iraq had to destroy not only the missiles, but their engines, auto-pilots and guidance and control systems, launchers, fuel, oxidizer, casting chambers, equipment and components designed for their production and testing as well as software and research used to construct the missiles. He did not say how long Iraq should take to destroy the equipment. However, the deadline he gave would allow him to report to the Security Council early next month on whether Iraq has complied and have an impact on a U.S.-British quest for a U.N. resolution authorizing war. US SAYS NOT ENOUGH Blix did not ask that the factories where the missiles were manufactured be demolished, as some U.S. officials had wanted. And he did not order destroyed a test stand, which his inspectors had said appeared to be capable of testing missile engines bigger than those designed for the Al-Samoud. Instead, he said the test stand would be monitored. A senior U.S. official in Washington told Reuters that Blix's order "covers a great deal but all-in-all it's less than the United States has asked for." "It exempts facilities that serve both kinds of rockets and thus leaves in place facilities with the inherent capability to reconstruct an Al Samoud 2 program," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Iraq, which openly declared to Blix the details of the missiles, has denied they were illegal. Iraqi officials have asked Blix for further tests. Baghdad's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, said earlier that the small range discrepancy was attributable to the fact that the missiles, when tested, were not carrying a payload, guidance systems and fuel whose weight would have limited their range. Other council members, especially Russia, have questioned whether the missile controversy should turn into a so-called "smoking gun" as the exceeded range was small and the rockets had been declared by Iraq. Blix first raised alarms about the Al-Samoud 2 missile in his report to the Security Council on Jan. 27. He said that it appeared to be illegal because it exceeded the permitted range set down by the United Nations, although not by much. He said the Al-Samoud 2 had been test-fired to a distance of 183 km (110 miles) and noted that the Al-Samoud's 760 mm diameter was increased from the earlier version. Iraq, he said, had also imported 380 rocket engines, chemicals used in propellants, test instrumentation and control instruments. In a report to Blix's U.N. Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission in October, Iraq said 13 of the 40 tests of the Al-Samoud 2 had gone beyond the proscribed limit. Iraq also included data on the missiles in its Dec. 7 arms declaration demanded by the Security Council. |
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