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Iraqi workers unload the U.N. inspectors' equipment at Saddam International airport in Baghdad
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Additional
Reporting By Lamya Tawfik, IOL
Cairo
Staff
BAGHDAD,
November 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As the U.N. weapons
inspectors – armed with a tough new Security Council mandate to
disarm Iraq – returned to Iraq Monday, November 18, after a
four-year absence, an Egyptian nuclear expert shared his views on the
team's work with IslamOnline.
Fawzi
Hammad, the former head of the Egyptian Nuclear Energy Authority told
IslamOnline that it is too early to predict whether or not the U.N.
inspection mission in
Iraq
will fail or succeed.
"At
this stage, Hans Blix [the chief U.N. weapons inspector] and his team
are in
Iraq
to set the stage for the ground work. It has been four years since the
last work of the inspectors and they need to check out the
laboratories, the equipment and to also arrange facilitations from the
Iraqi officials. This is why the U.N. resolution said that the
inspections should start 45 days after the resolution was made,"
said Hammad.
He
said that the team is working under circumstances different from the
previous United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) team, that
was established by the Security Council and accepted by
Iraq
following the second Gulf War to verify the destruction of Iraqi WMD.
"This
team will inspect chemical, nuclear, biological weapons as well as
missiles and spraying equipment and planes. They have additional
liberties such as taking the Iraqi scientists and their families
abroad for questioning," said Hammad.
This
move, he said, was unprecedented in modern history. "In former
disarming efforts carried out by the United Nations, such as in
South Africa
, this did not happen. In the former
Soviet Union
, the weapons were confiscated and given to
Russia
, but scientists from Ukrania, Kazakhistan and
Uzbekistan
were not taken outside the country."
He
said that he expects most of the Iraqi scientists to be lured into
working for international organizations.
Hammad
also said that there needs to be proof that
Iraq
actually has any nuclear weapons. In 1998,
Iraq
gave International Atomic Energy Agency nearly 1.5 million papers on
the development of nuclear weapons.
With
regards to the possibility that there might be spies amongst the
inspection team, Hammad said that he has hope that Blix will be aware
of that possibility and that there can be no guarantees that
intelligence agencies around the world will not attempt to interfere
with the inspection teams. "
Israel
will most probably try to spy on
Iraq
," he said.
Hammad
said that he expects there will be conflicts between the inspection
team and the Iraqi government, but that he hopes this would be solved
by international efforts and the efforts of the Arab League in
following up on the work of the inspectors.
He
said he doubted the veracity of the reports in which Iraqi exiles said
that the Iraqi regime was hiding nuclear and chemical weapons in
mosques, hospitals and schools.
"These
are places where people go to every day, it is inhumane to do that. In
addition, they are not exactly hiding places, and may be easily
discovered. If you wanted to hide something would you put it out in
the open or under the ground?" he said.
The
inspections, Hammad said, do in fact undermine the control of the
Iraqi regime on the people and land. "There was a lot of
destruction that took place during the first inspections. They would
just point at buildings and they would have to be brought down. In
fact the amount of destruction that took place during the war was
similar to the amount that took place during the inspections."
On
Monday, after two hours of talks with Iraqi officials, including
President Saddam Hussein's adviser, General Amer al-Saadi, Blix said
that they are "making progress."
With
him on the mission to reopen offices and set up communications links
is International Atomic Energy Agency director general Mohamed
El-Baradei and two dozen others. They are expected to remain in
Iraq
until Wednesday.
"We
are here to do a job and we will do that professionally and I hope
competently," Blix, a former Swedish foreign minister, said on
his arrival at
Saddam
International
Airport
, disputing suggestions that war or peace depended solely on his men.
"We
do not see it that way. We think that the question of war and peace
depends mainly on
Iraq
on the one hand and on the Security Council on the other."
He
said inspections would resume around November 27 with an initial
report to be presented to the Security Council in January.
Under
the resolution,
Iraq
has until December 8 to give a full accounting of its weapons programs
or face possible retaliation, likely a U.S.-led attack. The resolution
reserves for the council the right to determine whether
Iraq
is cooperating with U.N. inspectors in an effort to soothe
Washington
's concerns over Blix's objectivity.
U.K.
daily newspaper, The Guardian, said that Blix on Tuesday,
November 19, accused hawks in
Washington
of conducting a smear campaign against him.
"Key
figures in the Bush administration have criticized Mr Blix in recent
weeks, claiming he is too weak to stand up to the Iraqi president,
Saddam Hussein, and that he may fail to find the weapons that the CIA
claims have been hidden by the Iraqis," said The Guardian.
According
to the paper, U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney and Defense secretary
Donald Rumsfeld "have both said they do not believe the
inspectors will succeed in disarming president Saddam, and their aides
have anonymously briefed against Mr Blix who failed to detect Iraq's
nuclear program in the 1980s when he was head of the IAEA."
