The former chief United Nations weapons inspector, Hans Blix, on Tuesday accused Denmark, as well as Britain and the United States, of misinterpreting his reports on the search for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Blix told Danish daily newspaper Politiken the three governments had drawn hasty, broad and undocumented conclusions in order to justify the war against Iraq, singling out Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller for criticism.
"Your minister jumped to the same conclusion as the United States and Britain, who said 'because these weapons have not been accounted for, then they exist'. But, that is not right. Maybe they exist, maybe they don't exist," he stated.
Blix recalled that he made that point clear to the UN Security Council in February.
Blix said Moeller misinterpreted the UN inspectors' reports during a Danish parliament debate in March on whether to go to war against Baghdad.
In a reply to a question in parliament, Moeller cited Blix as saying in his reports on Iraq that Baghdad had "yet to account for significant quantities of biological and chemical weapons".
Blix told Politiken "That is not right when the minister says that Iraq cannot account for what it has done with these weapons. That is not the same as saying that they exist."
In a written response to Politiken, Moeller said Blix's allegations "were not surprising".
"(The) weapons inspectors' reports clearly indicated that Iraq had not respected the UN Security Council's demands to cooperate immediately, actively and without preconditions," Moeller said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
