Iraq reveals bomb with potential biological use
By Roula Khalaf in Baghdad and Mark Turner at the United Nations.Published: February 25 2003 21:38 | Last Updated: February 26 2003 0:56
United Nations inspectors said on Tuesday Baghdad had begun to provide new information on its weapons of mass destruction, including a bomb that could contain biological agents.
They described the development as a sign of co-operation with their efforts to oversee disarmament, but it remained unclear whether Iraq would comply with a critical order to begin destroying proscribed missiles by the weekend.
The latest Iraqi disclosures fuelled the debate dividing the UN Security Council over whether to back US-led moves towards military action. They appeared designed to bolster those on the Security Council that are reluctant to vote for war.
Hans Blix, chief UN weapons inspector, announced that Iraq said it had found documents concerning the dismantling of weapons of mass destruction in 1991 and that it had found an R-400 bomb, containing unspecified liquid, at a site where biological weapons had been disposed of in the past. Mr Blix said of the move: "Here are some elements that are positive".
Officials said it could indicate Iraq was taking the process "more seriously than before", but they needed to study the letter more closely. If the bomb held biological material, one said, that could pose further questions.
General Amer al-Saadi, top scientific adviser to Mr Hussein, said the disarmament inspections had improved. "We made some progress, in fact we made some breakthroughs," he said.
However, the US and UK dismissed the development as delaying tactics by Saddam Hussein aimed at preventing an attack on Iraq, which Washington is expected to be preparing for mid- to late-March.
George W. Bush, US president, accused Mr Hussein of "playing games". He said: "The world will say disarm and he will all of a sudden find a weapon he claimed he didn't have." Only full disarmament by Iraq would prevent war, he said.
Iraq faces in the coming week two critical tests of its willingness to co-operate with inspectors. Mr Blix has insisted that it start destroying dozens of al-Samoud 2 missiles, which have a range beyond the 150km limit allowed by the UN, by Saturday.
Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the inspectors, said production of the missile was "still going on". A senior aide to Mr Hussein said Mr Blix's demand was being examined.
Mr Ueki signalled that Iraq would face another decisive test involving private interviews with Iraqi scientists. Mr Blix is working on a list of "unanswered questions", possibly for release after his next report on March 1, but has not yet defined Iraq's "key disarmament tasks".
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