U.N. Inspectors Vow Not to Accept Iraqi 'No'

Reuters ^ | 11/17/02 | Michele Kambas

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

LARNACA, Cyprus (Reuters) - U.N. arms inspectors gathered in Cyprus to relaunch the search in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction on Monday, vowing not to take no for an answer if they wanted to inspect a site.

Leaders of the first arms inspectors since the last ones left in 1998 complaining that President Saddam Hussein would not cooperate, said Iraq's fate -- lifting of sanctions or war -- depended on its hiding nothing.

Just hours before chief weapons inspector Hans Blix touched down at the main airport in Cyprus, U.S. and British warplanes bombed an air defense system in northern Iraq after Iraqi forces fired at the jets in a "no-fly" zone, the U.S. military said.

"We're on our way to a new chapter of inspections in Iraq," Blix, a 74-year-old Swede, told reporters gathered for his arrival at Larnaca airport on Sunday with Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

There was a buzz of action at the three-star Flamingo Beach Hotel on Larnaca's seafront as inspectors and other staff arrived on the Mediterranean island from all over the world. They were due to leave for Baghdad around 3 a.m. EST on Monday.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Saddam would be making the mistake of his life if he stopped inspectors looking for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

"He mustn't believe, because he would be making the mistake of his life, that he can mess the international community about yet again," Straw told Britain's Sky News on Sunday.

When asked how sure he would be that Iraq was not concealing weapons, ElBaradei said: "We do not take 'no' for an answer. We have to verify a 'no' is actually a 'no'."

"This is an opportunity for peace. I hope Iraq will make full use of it. It's an opportunity for Iraq if fully cooperative ...to come back to be fully members of the international community and to eventually eliminate sanctions."

SOMEONE HAS TO OPEN THE GATE

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said that while Iraq was ready to comply fully, the results would expose as lies U.S. charges that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Aziz warned that if the United States and Britain "wage a war against Iraq, consequences will be very bad to them and their friends in the region."

"We will provide immediate access. We have given instructions to all responsible people and many government areas to respond immediately to any request to enter their sites and inspect them," Aziz told London Weekend Television's Jonathan Dimbleby program on Sunday.

But Aziz said inspectors should not think they could just barge into sites: "When you go to a site, the site has a gate. The gate has to be opened and that who opens the gate should know who is coming. This is common sense."

Blix warned even a 30-minute delay in granting access to a suspect site would be regarded as a serious violation.

But Britain's Straw left some leeway for the Iraqis.

"Of course there is a difference between some technical, inadvertent breach and some deliberate material breach," he said.

Blix said the team of 30 inspectors who would travel with him and ElBaradei to Baghdad on Monday would devote themselves first to working out logistics.

"There's a lot to organize," he said. "There are laboratories (to set up), a large number of jeeps, helicopters and a plane to be sorted out."

He said formal inspections start on November 27, and he expects to have 100 inspectors drawn from more than 40 countries in Iraq by the end of the year.

Nothing will be regarded as off-limits including mosques and Saddam's palaces. Soil, water and air samples will be tested.

The first significant test is a December 8 deadline for Iraq to submit a full account of all its banned weapons programs. By January 27 next year, the inspectors must have given their first report to the U.N. Security Council.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Blix, who will return to Cyprus from Baghdad on Wednesday, said technology improvements since the inspectors left in 1998 improved chances of finding any hidden weapons.

"The tiniest little thing can be detected," he said.

In Washington, President Bush said he was skeptical about Iraq's intentions and an intelligence operation was underway to track possibly thousands of Iraqis who work and study in the United States and who may be Saddam sympathizers.

Sunday's bombing raids were part of a rise in the number of incidents involving the patrols over no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq as the chances of war loom over inspections.

Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones and often accuses the jets of causing civilian casualties.

The zones were set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south from attack by Saddam's military.

Asked how he felt about possibly holding the key to war and peace in his hands, Blix replied:

"We are not actually feeling we do that. The question of war and peace remains first of all in the hands of Iraq and the Security Council and members of the Security Council."