 |
|
A U.N. C-130 transport aircraft waits at Larnaca airport to fly arms inspectors to Iraq Monday
|
BAGHDAD,
November 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - With 48 hours to go
before U.N. chief arms inspectors Hans Blix arrives in Baghdad, Iraq
urged his inspectors on Saturday, November 16, to be objective and
impartial in order not to give the United States a pretext to attack.
The
inspectors will prove that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction
if they work objectively, unlike their predecessors who
"spied" for Washington, the official daily Al-Jumhuriya
wrote in a front-page editorial.
If
the inspectors act "impartially, objectively and away from U.S.
pressures," Washington's "lies and slander" about Iraq's
possession of prohibited weapons will be exposed, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) quoted the paper as saying.
The
use of experts with the former UNSCOM arms commission as a "tool to
achieve the United States' evil designs against Iraq, and their spying
activities that had nothing to do with their work ... were acknowledged
by the commission's ex-chief Rolf Ekeus, senior inspector Scott Ritter
and others," the paper recalled.
Hence,
everyone will be watching the conduct of inspectors from the U.N.
Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), set up in
1999 to replace UNSCOM, it added.
Al-Jumhuriya
said the inspectors must be professional if they are to live up to
expectations raised by Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) Director General Mohamed El-Baradei, who will also come to
Baghdad on Monday, November 18, with Blix's advance party.
It
will be the first time arms inspectors have come to Iraq since UNSCOM
pulled out ahead of a December 1998 U.S.-British bombing blitz.
"There's
no room for contriving crises and creating pretexts aimed at harming
Iraq," Al-Jumhuriya said, referring to U.S. threats to use
force to rid Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq
has accepted the latest U.N. Security Council resolution giving arms
inspectors sweeping powers in order to prove that it has no prohibited
weapons and deny the United States a chance to carry out its war plans.
If
the arms experts behave professionally, "the truth of Iraq's
contention that it is free of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
will become glaringly evident," Al-Jumhuriya said.
It
also called for Arab experts to be included in the inspection teams,
something that was also requested by Syria, the only Arab member of the
Security Council.
Another
newspaper, Ath-Thawra, the mouthpiece of Iraq's ruling Baath
Party, on Friday, November 15, similarly called on inspectors to show
they can resist the anticipated U.S. meddling in their work after
Baghdad agreed to the "unfair and provocative" resolution
1441.
Blix
on Friday warned Iraq against playing "cat-and-mouse games"
with weapons inspectors, who he said would start their work on November
27.
The
behavior of the Iraqi authorities would be pivotal between war and
peace, Blix told a news conference in New York on Friday night,
imploring Baghdad to make a clean breast of its weapons arsenal.
"Iraq's
declaration is a very important document and we hope they take it
seriously," Blix said.
Blix,
noting that Iraq concealed its biological weapons for many years, said
"an omission can be very serious ... That was a very significant
omission."
Blix
said the UNMOVIC was ready to conduct inspections anywhere, even in
mosques.
"There
are no sanctuaries," Blix said, but added: "We are aware of
religious sensitivities ... and are not instructed to carry out
provocative inspections.
"If
I had solid evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, then I
would put that on the table of the Security Council," he added.
He
is expected to hold talks Saturday in Paris with French Foreign Minister
Dominique Villepin before flying on to a final staging post in Larnaca,
Cyrpus, en route for the Iraqi capital on Monday.
U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed on Thursday, November 14, that
Baghdad does have mass destruction weapons, and U.N. inspectors will
make their own conclusions.
While
Blix has said it would not be up to him, but to the Security Council, to
decide if Iraq was in breach of its disarmament obligations, the United
States has suggested it would only "consult" the world body
and would feel free to take military action if the U.N. failed to disarm
Baghdad.
Blix
will arrive here via Cyprus with a small advance party of technicians
and administrative officials to reopen and re-equip offices that have
been unused for four years.
The
team, with nationals from 15 countries, will include 10 from the IAEA
and 14 from UNMOVIC.
Most
are logistics experts and technicians who will install secure
communications and satellites equipment and set up labs.
In
Paris, French President Jacques Chirac and visiting Mexican counterpart
Vicente Fox stressed their rejection of any unilateral attack on Baghdad
by the United States.
"Our
position on the picture of the world and the crises that unfortunately
are occurring is absolutely identical," Chirac told a joint press
conference with Fox, whose country chairs the Security Council.
In
a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday, November 13,
Iraq denied having weapons of mass destruction, but said it would
welcome the inspectors so as to expose "the fabrications of the
liars" in the U.S. and British governments.
