The United Nations’ chief weapons inspectors hailed new discussions with Iraqi officials in Baghdad yesterday as ‘very substantial’ following more than four hours of talks billed as a final opportunity for Iraq to avoid war.
Hans Blix and his colleague, Mohamed ElBaradei, emerged from the meetings armed with bundles of new documents provided by the Iraqis. They said they would be inspecting the new material overnight before more talks today.
The news came as Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, made a direct plea that there be no war until ‘all the alternatives have been exhausted’. The decision to use force was not a matter ‘for one nation, but for the international community as a whole … there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations Security Council,’ Annan said.
Annan’s statement came hours after President Bush gave his most bellicose speech to date in a radio address yesterday, saying Saddam ‘had thrown away his last chance’.
This speech echoed similar remarks before the offensive against Afghanistan and was seen as preparing the US for war. Bush reasserted with confidence the contested claim of a link between Baghdad and al-Qaeda and said he would ‘take whatever action was necessary’ to disarm Saddam. UN officials said ElBaradei, and his counterpart, Hans Blix, would demand hard evidence that Iraq had destroyed lethal weapons stocks. ‘We want to see documents, orders and production reports, remnants of destroyed materials, or to talk to the people who oversaw the destruction,’ one said.
The arrival of Blix and ElBaradei in Baghdad, barely three weeks after their last visit, was the strongest signal yet of the UN’s growing impatience with Iraq. There was no indication of whether the pair would meet Saddam Hussein before leaving Iraq tonight, but officials suggested face-to-face talks could be pivotal to head off a military strike.
A senior UN official said Saddam meeting inspectors would ‘send out the right message’. ‘Too often, the Iraqis have received mixed messages from their leadership about the extent to which they should co-operate with us.
‘Blix and ElBaradei have demanded three key issues be solved by the time they leave Baghdad: Iraqi scientists be allowed unsupervised interviews to the inspectors; U-2 spy planes be allowed to conduct surveillance flights unimpeded; and legislation be enforced prohibiting all activity with and production of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.’
However a deal on scientists and the U-2 planes, or even the passage of legislation banning weapons production, will not satisfy Blix, who is intent on a more substantive compromise.
Meanwhile the European/US split deepened as a report to be published in a German magazine today claimed Germany and France have developed a joint plan to disarm Iraq. Der Spiegel claimed the idea had been worked on by French and German leaders since January and that a diplomatic effort was under way to gather support for the plan from Russia and China.
This concept envisages all of Iraq being declared a no-fly zone, beneath which UN peacekeepers including a German contingent, would control the country for several years. Saddam would not necessarily be removed, but any weapons of mass destruction would be destroyed. Should Iraq disregard a UN resolution to provide for such a set-up, war could proceed, according to the report.
Crumbling relations between Germany and the US disintegrated further as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Germany yesterday to address the Munich Conference on Security Policy.
Awaiting him was what organisers hoped would be Germany’s biggest anti-war march, with 20 000 people expressing opposition to US policy on Iraq. Opening the conference, Rumsfeld said: ‘No one wants war. But the risks of a war must be balanced against the risks of doing nothing while Iraq continues to build up weapons of mass destruction.’
He held back from openly criticising the German government, but said those countries that did not stand with the US were raising the chances of war. ‘If the international community once again shows a lack of resolve, there is no chance that Saddam Hussein will disarm voluntarily or flee — and thus little chance of a peaceful outcome.’
But German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer then openly dismissed Colin Powell’s presentation to the UN on Wednesday, saying: ‘I’m sorry, but I am not convinced. I cannot go to the public and say let’s go to war.’
In a 10-minute telephone conversation on Friday, French President Jacques Chirac told Bush that France believes that there is an alternative to war against Iraq, implying that Paris has not abandoned the option of using its Security Council veto on an eventual new UN resolution authorising an invasion. – Guardian Unlimited Â