Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Sunday called for an ”honest broker mechanism” that would allow an immediate resumption of arms inspections in Iraq and ensure no deviation from Security Council resolutions.
The mechanism foresees the inspectors’ ”unconditional return and yet provides assurances to Iraq that unfettered access would only be applied to disarmament issues and not be used to infringe upon Iraq’s sovereignty, dignity and national security,” Ritter told Iraq’s parliament in an address.
”There is a need for the confidence building mechanism for the monitoring of the interaction between weapons inspectors and Iraq to ensure that there are no deviations from the mandate of disarmament by the inspectors as well as obstruction of the work of the inspectors by Iraq,” Ritter said.
Ritter said he had had talks with ”representatives from several countries about this concept and they have indicated their willingness to step forth and work with Iraq and the UN secretary general to serve as such an honest broker.”
Ritter (40) a former captain in the US Marines who was once dubbed a ”cowboy” by UN staff and diplomats for his intrusive inspection procedures, resigned from the United Nations in August 1998, citing a lack of UN and US support for his tough disarmament methods.
However in recent years Ritter has become increasingly critical of US policies towards Iraq.
One of the main inspectors for the former UN disarmament commission, Ritter has called for the UN sanctions slapped on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait to be lifted in return for a resumption of weapons inspections.
Meanwhile, Iraq has accused US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Blair of lying to the world to build a case for military action to topple President Saddam Hussein, but said their efforts would be futile.
The United States, with British support, accuses Saddam of possessing weapons of mass destruction and harboring terrorism.
The official newspaper al-Thawra claimed in an editorial on Monday that a meeting Bush and Blair held last week in the United States was aimed at developing a strategy for spreading false accusations against Iraq.
”It seems that Bush and Blair are trying hopelessly to convince the world of their old lies through intensifying propaganda campaigns and supplying the Western media with fabricated incidents and stories,” al-Thawra said, adding a vow that ”Iraqis, unaffected by such futile project, would confront the aggressors who will find the gates of hell waiting for them.”
Blair has said his government hoped soon to publish a dossier of evidence on Iraq’s attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
On Sunday, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan dismissed reports from recent days cited as evidence against Saddam’s government.
The head of a UN atomic weapons team said on Friday that satellite photos show new construction at several sites linked to Saddam’s past nuclear efforts. And a US intelligence official said on Saturday that Iraq has recently stepped up attempts to import industrial equipment that could be used to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.
”There is no such a thing,” Ramadan told reporters when asked about both reports. ”They are telling lies and lies to make others believe them.”
US Vice President Dick Cheney said intelligence gathered in the last 12 to 14 months suggests the ”the United States may well become the target” of an attack. Cheney and other top Bush administration officials took to US TV talk shows Sunday as part of Bush’s effort to persuade the public, Congress and other countries that action against Saddam is urgently needed.
Bush will address the United Nations on Thursday. His secretary of state, Colin Powell, said that whatever the world organisation decides, Bush will reserve the right to go it alone against Iraq.
Bush is making his case later on Monday to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who said last week he has yet to see evidence that would justify Canadian support for a military campaign against Iraq. Officially, the two leaders were meeting in Detroit to discuss border security.
The US-British position has met skepticism around the world, with outspoken opposition from such countries as France, Germany, Russia and China. Many of the same countries also have called on Iraq to end its four-year ban on UN weapons inspectors to defuse the crisis.
Ritter visited Baghdad on Sunday, and said Iraq posed no threat and urging it to prove that by opening up to inspections.
Iraq, while denying it still has weapons of mass destruction, has offered only to continue dialogue with the United Nations about the return of inspectors. It has not responded to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s demand that inspectors be allowed to return unconditionally as a first step to further talks.
Sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait cannot be lifted until UN inspectors certify that the country has surrendered nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them.
In New Zealand on Monday, Prime Minister Helen Clark said her government had seen no convincing evidence to support military action against Iraq, and any decision for a military strike should be made by the United Nations.
Clark said the United States’ attitude toward Iraq has to be seen ”in the context of September 11, where the United States was very badly hurt psychologically, to say nothing of the 3 000 deaths which resulted.”
Clark said there was also no evidence linking September 11 to Saddam.
Abdul Hadi Awang, leader of Malaysia’s Islamic fundamentalist opposition, on Monday urged Muslim countries to join forces to oppose any Western attempt to attack Iraq, mentioning an oil embargo as a possible tactic.
Abdul Hadi said he was confident his party, the largest opposition group in predominantly Muslim Malaysia, could work with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s government to jointly condemn any military campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. Mahathir, a moderate Muslim voice and a key Washington ally in the fight against terrorism, has said that a US-led attack on Iraq would infuriate Muslims and stir ”great hatred” against Americans. – Sapa-AP