The United States has expressed concern over an Iraqi order for more than a million doses of the nerve gas antidote atropine, amid fears Baghdad may be preparing to use chemical weapons in the event
of military action against it.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday that Washington was trying to determine if the motive behind the order — which was submitted to the United Nations — was legitimate or a threat or an attempt to intimidate.
”I don’t want to say what they intended or not,” Powell told reporters at the State Department after meeting with UN chief Kofi Annan.
”Maybe it was a threat or some effort at disinformation, I don’t know, I am not going to speculate as to what they had in mind,” he said.
But Powell noted that the ”principal use” for atropine in the form and quantity Iraq had ordered was, ”as an antidote for nerve gas poisoning.”
Later, in an interview with ABC’s Nightline television programme, Powell said it was possible the Iraqis planned to use atropine to protect their own population or wished Washington to believe that.
”But we are taking under advisement these reports that they are trying to acquire atropine surrettes, and looking at it very closely,” he said.
A senior State Department official said earlier that Iraq’s order for 1,25-million doses of atropine was ”of some concern.”
”It’s being looked at in terms of their real needs,” the official said, noting that the drug had other medical uses including the treatment of heart conditions and pesticide poisoning.
The official said much of the drug had been ordered from a Turkish company but that firms in other countries were also believed to have received inquiries from Baghdad.
The official would not identify the other nations involved but said Washington had raised the matter with Turkish authorities in Ankara and would continue to study the Iraqi order to determine whether it is legitimate or a prelude to the possible use of chemical weapons.
The United States and Turkey ”have common concerns about Iraq and what it has done in the past and might do in the future,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
State Department representative Richard Boucher declined to discuss the specifics of any Iraqi order of atropine but said an attempt by Baghdad to purchase large quantities of the drug would raise flags.
”An Iraqi order for more atropine than needed to meet normal humanitarian requirements would be of concern since that could indicate preparations to use chemical weapons by preparing to protect their own forces from the consequences of such use,” Boucher said.
Atropine, which is generally injected into a person’s leg, is very effective against nerve gas agents such as sarin and VX, which Iraq has acknowledged having in its arsenal.
On Tuesday, The New York Times quoted a former director of the US Army’s biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland, who said that such a large amount of atropine would not likely be destined for peaceful use.
Baghdad insists it has destroyed its stocks of the gas, but US intelligence officials have cast doubt on that declaration, the Times said. – Sapa-AFP