Iraq's destruction of its Al Samoud 2 missiles constitutes a "substantial measure of disarmament," the chief U.N. weapons inspector reported to the Security Council on Friday.
Hans Blix added that Iraq is now providing inspectors with proactive cooperation. On the missiles, Blix said: "The destruction undertaken constitutes a substantial measure of disarmament. We are not watching the destruction of toothpicks. Lethal weapons are being destroyed," he said.
Blix welcomed recent Iraqi cooperation, which he said "can be seen as active, or even proactive." The chief inspector said Iraq had recently provided additional documentation on anthrax and the VX nerve agent.
"Many have been found to restate what Iraq has already declared." Blix said that even with continued "proactive" cooperation from Iraq, it will take some time to ensure that Iraq has carried out key remaining disarmament tasks which he intends to present to the Security Council later this month.
"It will not take years, nor weeks, but months," he said, stressing that even after this is completed, Iraq should be subject to ongoing inspections and monitoring of its facilities.
He conveyed inspectors had been unable to verify some claims about hidden Iraqi weapons and he asked again for more information about suspect sites.
Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency also took a swipe at U.S. intelligence, saying his analysis now definitively showed that suspect aluminum tubes were not destined for equipment that could be used to refine uranium for nuclear weapons use.
"Extensive field investigation and document analysis have failed to uncover any evidence that Iraq intended to use these 81mm tubes for any project other than the reverse engineering of rockets," ElBaradei said.
ElBaradei also told the council that the IAEA found no evidence to support reports that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger. "Based on thorough analysis, the IAEA has concluded, with the concurrence of outside experts, that documents which formed the basis for the reports of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger are in fact not authentic," he said. "We have therefore concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded." (Albawaba.com)
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