Iraq Begins Destroying Missiles
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
AGHDAD, Iraq, March 1 — Iraq began destroying its short-range Al Samoud 2 missiles today, crushing four of them with a bulldozer under the supervision of United Nations weapons inspectors, the latest in a series of clearly distasteful measures that Baghdad has swallowed in hopes of staving off war.
Demetrius Perricos, the deputy United Nations weapons inspector, said just 4 were crushed today of a stock of about 100. He said Iraq indicated that it could deliver only that many to the destruction site northwest of Baghdad right away.
[On Sunday morning, Reuters reported that six more missiles were destroyed by Iraq.]
He said demolition also started south of Baghdad on one of the two casting chambers used to meld solid rocket propellant and engines for other short-range missiles. "All the missiles that are presently deployed, all the missiles in a state where they are ready to be deployed and all the parts and components are also to be destroyed," Mr. Perricos said at a news conference here.
There was no immediate comment from the Iraqi government about the destruction.
In Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, today, at a summit meeting of Arab leaders, the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country to call for President Saddam Hussein of Iraq to step down. The emirates said his resignation was the only way to avoid an American-led war and the devastation it could cause the Iraqi people.
Mr. Perricos said he was "very glad" that the destruction of Iraqi missiles had started, but he noted that it was just one of a host of outstanding questions about Iraqi cooperation with the weapons inspectors. "There is a big list of unresolved issues where we still have to have a lot of answers," he said, but he suggested that inspections could still be effective.
"We have not found the famous smoking gun," he said, but he suggested that the presence of the inspectors was preventing the development of weapons.
Although the timetable for the destruction of the missiles was left up to Iraq, Mr. Perricos said he hoped the pace would accelerate all week before one of the two chief weapons inspectors, Hans Blix, makes his next report to the United Nations Security Council. The United Nations had not set a deadline, Mr. Perricos said, but "the earlier they destroy, the better it is for them."
In addition to the destruction of the missiles, the Iraqis started to meet the demand that the inspectors be allowed to conduct private interviews with scientists involved in biological, chemical or missile technology. On Friday night, inspectors conducted two interviews, one with a biological scientist and the other with an engineer, and they conducted two more on Saturday.
The United States is pushing the Security Council to approve a new resolution supporting the use of force against Iraq. Those opposed to such action pointed to Iraq's promise to destroy the weapons as proof that inspections needed more time; their complete destruction would obviously bolster those arguments.
Mr. Perricos said that given the amount of material to be destroyed — including all the missiles, their warheads, 380 illegally imported engines, any fuel and all the design software — completing the job would not be feasible by the end of the week. But he said the Iraqis should be able to carry it out within two weeks.
He said the Iraqis were keenly aware of the weight riding on their decision to destroy the missiles. He said the decision to go ahead with new requests for interviews as well as the weapons destruction come now because the inspectors know that Iraq tends to be more flexible when it is facing deadline pressure of a new Blix report.
Mr. Blix demanded a week ago that Iraq start the destruction by today, saying that weapons experts had determined that the missiles exceeded the 93-mile limit imposed on Iraq for short-range missiles under the cease-fire that followed the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Experts also expressed concern that the rockets could serve as a precursor for a far more advanced system that could greatly exceed the limit.
Mr. Hussein and a host of senior Iraqi officials objected, saying first of all that the missiles, once fully loaded with their guidance systems, could not fly as far.
The destruction began a few hours after discussions with the Iraqis of technical aspects of the demolition. Mr. Perricos said that during a brief initial encounter a day earlier, the Iraqis had argued that they could keep the weapons, but that today they were all business.
He said the United Nations would have preferred that the weapons be exploded, a faster method, but the Iraqis elected to crush them.
The first efforts to crush a missile today failed because the bulldozer was too weak, but by late afternoon a stronger vehicle was found.
Iraq has been doling out concessions piecemeal, playing for time in hopes that the American threat to attack can be put off indefinitely either through international pressure or because of the onset of hot weather in April.
In accepting the order to destroy the missiles, Iraq was clearly hoping to provide support for countries like France, Germany and Russia, which have suggested that inspections need to be given more time to work. A refusal to destroy them would probably have generated overwhelming support in the Security Council for an attack on Iraq.
Iraq's chief weapons inspector, Gen. Hussam Amin, played down the significance of the missiles earlier this week, saying they were just one aspect of the country's defense abilities. Defense analysts also noted that they would probably be of little use in the cities where Iraq's military would probably be trying to take on the American forces.
"In this coming war, they will not be depending on missiles," suggested Wamidh Nadhmi, a professor at Baghdad University. "They will depend on urban warfare, where it is difficult for American technology to achieve supremacy."
The inspectors would provide no details concerning the interviews with the four scientists, but noted that they were the first interviews conducted since Feb. 7. Just three interviews were conducted around that day, all with scientists put forward by Iraq who worked for the inspection office.
Twenty eight requests by the United Nations for private interviews without Iraqi government "minders" or even tape recorders had been rejected by the Iraqis. Although the teams seeking to interview experts in biological, chemical or missile technology reject recordings, the nuclear inspectors have allowed them and carried out more than a dozen.
Iraq has responded to repeated demands for increased flexibility by suggesting a variety of technical discussions and by forming two commissions to look for both additional banned weapons and paperwork relating to destruction activity it said it carried out in 1991.
Mr. Perricos said he hoped to hear more about the work of the two commissions as early as Sunday. Discussions are to start Sunday with a team of biological weapons experts about ways to verify what Iraq says was its complete destruction of its stocks of VX gas and anthrax in 1991.
Weapons inspectors have also been going daily to the Aziziya firing range to observe the digging in search of R-400 aerial bombs and bomb fragments. Iraq says the bombs were filled with biological agents and destroyed.
Mr. Perricos said he could not confirm what the bombs unearthed so far contained, since samples are only to be taken Sunday, but there was liquid sloshing around inside them.
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