Blix orders destruction of Iraqi Al Samoud missiles
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has ordered Iraq to destroy dozens of its missiles with ranges that violate UN limits, and gave Baghdad a March 1 deadline to begin the demolition.
His demand that Iraq eliminate the Al Samoud 2 missile system will test Baghdad’s willingness to disarm as negotiations for possible war enter a crucial stage. Washington has strongly pushed for the destruction of the missiles and all their components.
The US and Britain are trying to focus the world’s attention on illegal Iraqi weapons activities while they prepare a new UN resolution that could pave the way for military action. Secretary of State Colin Powell sought support for the resolution from foreign ministers of four Security Council nations yesterday.
Iraq’s decision will likely be a factor in whether the council approves such a resolution, which is expected to be introduced early next week. Washington’s goal is to achieve a minimum nine votes on the council, while avoiding a veto by France, Russia or China. All three of those permanent members are opposed to war and want to extend the weapons searches.
The order to destroy the Al Samoud 2 missiles confronts the Iraqi government with a serious dilemma: whether to give up a valuable weapons system its military would almost certainly use against a US-led coalition, or refuse to comply and face accusations that it is not co-operating with UN inspectors.
In a four-page letter, Mr Blix told Iraq to hand over to inspectors “for verifiable destruction” all Al Samoud 2 missiles and warheads, SA-2 missile engines configured for use in those missiles, machinery to produce missile motors, and other components.
“The appropriate arrangements should be made so that the destruction process can commence by March 1, 2003,” Mr Blix said in the letter to Lieutenant General Amer al-Saadi, an adviser to President Saddam Hussein. By no coincidence, March 1 is also the date Mr Blix’s next report on Iraqi compliance is due to the Security Council.
He also ordered that fuel, launchers, testing equipment and all software and documentation about the Al Samoud programme be destroyed – but not the factories where the missiles were built as the US wanted.
Mr Blix handed the letter to Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri at UN headquarters last night.
There was no immediate response from Iraq to the letter.
But earlier yesterday, Mohammed Modhaffar al-Adhami, a member of Iraq’s parliament, said he believed Iraq would destroy the missiles if so ordered.
“Iraq will do the maximum in its co-operation to avoid any aggression ... even (destroying) the missiles,” Mr al-Adhami told The Associated Press in Baghdad.
Iraq maintains that some Al Samouds travelled beyond the 93-mile limit set by the Security Council after the 1991 Gulf War because they were tested without warheads or guidance systems, which made them lighter.
Mr Al-Douri reiterated yesterday that Iraq wants UN technical experts to come to Iraq to see that the missiles cannot exceed the limit, and not rely on “a written paper, a theoretical report”.
But in the letter, Mr Blix said Iraq had increased the diameter of the Al-Samoud in violation of a 1994 order from the previous UN inspectors, and that computer simulations in four countries and the international panel of experts agreed that the missile exceeded the limit. A larger diameter means the missile has the potential to travel farther.
As a result, he said, there is no need “for further clarification or testing” and “all Al Samoud 2 missiles and associated items” should be presented to inspectors so they can verify their destruction.
“The necessary destruction is to be carried out by Iraq under” UN guidance and supervision, Blix wrote. The inspectors “will select from a variety of methods of destruction, depending on items to be destroyed, such as explosive demolition, crushing, melting, and other physical and chemical methods”.
Stepping up the pressure on Iraq, Mr Blix was also preparing a list of more than 35 outstanding issues surrounding Iraq’s disarmament that he will present to his advisory board of commissioners when they meet on Monday at UN headquarters.
Iraq is allowed to have missiles which travel up to 93 miles, which means it can hit neighbouring Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria and Jordan – but not Israel. But some former inspectors insist the technology Iraq chose for the Al Samoud 2 was clearly intended to support missile systems with longer ranges.
Iraq had declared the results of the missile tests in its semi-annual report to UN inspectors in October, and again in its 12,000-page weapons declaration on December 7. It said that 13 of the 40 tests went beyond the 93-mile limit, once to 114 miles.
Diplomatic sources said Iraq declared 76 Al-Samouds in June 2002 and said some had been used for tests and component parts. But Iraq has continued to produce the missiles, and UN inspectors now estimate they have between 100 and 120, the sources said.
