BLIX: still unsure if Baghdad really wanted to cooperate.
Report: Blix Says Inspections Could Take Months
Wed Feb 26,10:43 AM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
BERLIN (Reuters) - U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said in remarks published Wednesday his team would need a few months to complete inspections in Iraq, but he was still unsure if Baghdad really wanted to cooperate.
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"It's a process that is proceeding centimeter by centimeter ... Even if Iraq were to cooperate with us immediately, actively and unconditionally, we would need a few months," he told the German weekly Die Zeit.
"At the moment it is just not clear whether Iraq really wants to cooperate. On the other hand, this country has had eight years of inspections, four years without inspections and now 12 weeks with again. Is it the right time to close the door?"
Blix presents a written report on the progress on inspections to the U.N. Security Council Friday.
He denied the United States was trying to persuade him to sharpen his tone or to consider pulling out of Iraq.
"That is not the case ... It could be that I am naive and stupid or am too thick-skinned, but I do not feel much pressure," he said.
Blix also said he did not believe the United States wanted to go to war despite hawkish comments from the president and his staff and the build-up of U.S. troops in the Gulf.
"I am fairly convinced that Washington itself does not want a war," he said.
Blix repeated earlier comments that there were signs of increased cooperation, although Iraq still needed to do more.
"The regime has allowed us back in to avoid an immediate military strike. To what extent it was really a decision to cooperate I don't know," he said.
"Iraq could do more and we would register that."
Blix also insisted his team had been given a specific task, simply to compile evidence and that it bore no responsibility for a potential conflict.
"The security council has asked us for the most accurate report possible. I am a trained lawyer. The war is not my responsibility," he said.
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