Blix praises discussions in Iraq “useful”

MUNICH, February 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As top U.N. weapons inspectors said they are satisfied with a first day of  talks in Baghdad on Saturday, February 8, war prospects still loom closer with the United States lashing at France and Germany for not consulting it over a plan to disarm Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked his German counterpart Peter Struck during talks in Munich about the proposal but was told: “We’re not ready to talk yet,” a senior official was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

The way the proposal had emerged, as a report in the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, has further deepened the U.S. rift with France and Germany over their opposition to a war On Iraq.

Rumsfeld said he had “no knowledge” the plan for disarming Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He said that he had heard about the plan only from the press.

“I have no knowledge about it,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the annual international Munich security conference without elaborating.

According to Der Spiegel, Paris and Berlin are working on a plan centered on a de facto takeover of Iraq by United Nations troops.

The weekly said that, under the proposal, U.N. peacekeepers would in effect take control of the country on the ground to supervise Iraq’s disarmament.

Arms inspections would be tripled, a new series of sanctions would be placed on the country and efforts would be intensified to crack down on contraband oil smuggling by the Iraqi regime.

The magazine cited unnamed government officials as saying the plan had been conceived with the approval of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who reportedly told his ministers it was “not enough” simply to reject U.S. plans to wage war on Iraq.

It said a draft of the plan, which would make the whole of Iraq a no-fly zone, had been passed on to China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and Greece, which is the current president of the 15-nation European Union.

A German government spokesman declined to confirm the report, but said there were “thoughts in common to find peaceful alternatives to a military resolution to the Iraq conflict”.

France and Germany have found themselves increasingly isolated in Europe since several other nations on the continent expressed support for U.S. plans to take military action to disarm Saddam.

“Useful”

As the debate stepped up on the U.S. potential war against Iraq, top U.N. weapons inspector hailed his talks in Baghdad as “useful”.

Hans Blix, head of U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and Mohamed ElBaraedi, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were reportedly said they were handed out new documents by the Iraqi side during their visit to the country.

“We had a long day of discussions and we are continuing tomorrow ... It was a substantial and useful discussion,” Blix told reporters at the end of the first day of the top inspectors’ crucial talks in Baghdad.

ElBaradei said the Iraqi side was “providing explanations” on outstanding disarmament issues.

“We are going through many of the disarmament issues. The Iraqi side is providing explanations on the issues,” he said.

“We are discussing issues that have to do with process, surveillance flights (by arms inspectors), interviews (of Iraqi weapon scientists), as well as outstanding issues in the chemical, biological and missile” fields, ElBaradei said.

Further talks would take place on Sunday morning and afternoon, “and we will be in a better position to know where we are at the end of the day,” he added.

The Iraqi side at the talks was headed by presidential adviser General Amer Al-Saadi, who handles contacts with the top inspectors, and Hossam Mohamed Amin, head of the National Monitoring Directorate that liaises with the disarmament commissions.

In another related development, Iraq said on Saturday that U.N. arms inspectors privately interviewed an Iraqi “specialist,” the fifth such encounter between inspectors and Iraqi weapon scientists in three days.

“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) requested an interview with an Iraqi specialist, and the interview, which lasted two and a half hours, was conducted privately in a Baghdad hotel,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.

U.N. inspectors had long sought to speak alone with Iraqi scientists who have knowledge of the country’s weapons programs.

But until Thursday, no scientist had agreed to meet with inspectors in the absence of a government official, angering Blix who complained of Iraq's failure to cooperate with the disarmament teams.

In an address to the U.N. Security Council Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell charged that President Saddam Hussein had threatened to kill any scientists who divulged sensitive information to inspectors.

Iraqi officials vigorously denied the accusation and said they had no objection to private interviews.

But they said they could not force scientists to agree to such meetings and that the scientists themselves wanted a “witness” for fear their statements would later be distorted.