IAEA Chief/Iraq-2: Questions About Nuclear Program Remain
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*DJ IAEA Chief: Iraq Inspections Should Continue For Months
13 Feb 17:11
(MORE) Dow Jones Newswires
02-13-03 1711ET
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*DJ IAEA Chief: `No Reason' To Halt Inspections
13 Feb 17:13
(MORE) Dow Jones Newswires
02-13-03 1713ET
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DJ IAEA Chief/Iraq-2: Questions About Nuclear Program Remain
13 Feb 17:25
NEW YORK (AP)--As he prepared his report for a critical U.N. Security Council
meeting, the top U.N. nuclear weapons inspector said Thursday that inspections
should continue for months because "we are moving forward."
"We're still in midcourse, but we are moving forward, and I see no reason for
us to bring the inspection process to a halt," Mohamed ElBaradei told The
Associated Press as he drafted his report on a flight from Vienna, Austria, to
New York.
ElBaradei, director-general of the U.N. Atomic Energy Agency, is to deliver
his progress report Friday on the search for evidence of Iraqi nuclear weapons
programs. Also reporting to the council will be Hans Blix, who heads the hunt
for Baghdad's biological and chemical weapons.
ElBaradei refused to go into detail on his report.
But he suggested that he would ask for more time, reiterating that his
inspectors need months to finish their job - a view opposed by the Bush
administration, which is pressing ahead with plans to invade Iraq with or
without U.N. blessing.
ElBaradei also said the questions that still remain about Iraq's nuclear
program include reported imports of uranium, smuggled aluminum tubing, and
other components that could be used in a weapons program.
ElBaradei identified "concern" by his inspectors that included "the questions
of aluminum tubes, the question of importation of magnets, and the question of
importation of carbon fiber" as well as reported imports of uranium.
The magnets and carbon fiber as well as the aluminum tubing could potentially
be used in centrifuges to make fuel for nuclear warheads, according to experts
at the Vienna-based agency.
"These are the kinds of issues we are looking at," he said. Agency officials
who spoke on condition of anonymity said ElBaradei would raise these concerns
at the council meeting.
He suggested his report will not give a definite use for aluminum tubing
because "we are still conducting investigations" based on additional
information from the Iraqis.
On another subject, ElBaradei said American U-2 planes "should be flying this
week." Iraq recently accepted reconnaissance flights by American U-2 aircraft.
Earlier Thursday, Gen. Hossam Mohamed Amin, chief Iraqi liaison to the U.N.
inspectors, confirmed that Iraq had set restrictions on the use of surveillance
aircraft.
He said a letter had been sent to Blix, insisting on "all information about
when these planes are entering Iraqi airspace, the altitude and speed of the
plane, I mean the surveillance plane. We also need the call sign, and the time
and date they enter Iraqi airspace. If we get this information we can guarantee
the safety of the pilot and the plane."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-13-03 1725ET |
