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Field
inspections have uncovered the lies of Blair, who had claimed the
inspected sites had been producing banned weapons
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BAGHDAD,
November 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Washington will to try
to manipulate the U.N. arms experts whose resumed search for Iraq's
alleged weapons of mass destruction has begun smoothly, Baghdad said
Friday, November 29, adding that renewed field inspections by U.N.
experts had uncovered the lies of the government of British Prime
Minister Tony Blair.
"The
United States will not suffice with monitoring the work of inspection
teams, but will continue its illegitimate interference [in their work]
and go on issuing threats to Iraq," wrote Ath-Thawra newspaper,
mouthpiece of the ruling Baath Party.
Washington
"will poke its nose into the inspectors' mission and will contrive
[crises] to derail their work, especially after they, and the whole
world, start finding out that Iraq is free of mass destruction
weapons" and that the United States had been lying when it accused
Baghdad of having such weapons, the paper said.
The
United States will seek to manipulate the inspectors or squeeze
information out of them, as it did with the experts who left Baghdad
four years ago, Ath-Thawra added.
The
Iraqi foreign ministry, meanwhile, said field inspections by the U.N.
experts that resumed Wednesday, November 27, had uncovered the lies of
the government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had claimed the
inspected sites had been producing banned weapons, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
"The
foot-and-mouth disease institute and the Al-Nasr company were among the
sites accused by the report of British Prime Minister Tony Blair in
September 2002 of carrying out banned activities," the ministry
said.
"But
the results that the inspectors reached yesterday reveal the
spuriousness of the allegations and lies propagated by Tony Blair and
uncover his false accusations against Iraq," it said in a statement
carried by all newspapers.
It
provided a detailed report of the site visits Wednesday and Thursday,
November 27, 28, by experts of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA).
The
statement said the teams visited "sites accused by the British and
U.S. foreign ministries of carrying out banned activities.
"They
held meetings with the [site directors], asked questions, requested
explanations ... and received answers," it said.
The
inspectors took samples and pictures of the sites, the foreign ministry
added.
A
British government report said September 24 the "Al-Dawrah Foot and
Mouth Vaccine Institute which produced botulinum toxin and conducted
virus research. There is some intelligence to suggest that work was also
conducted on anthrax."
The
British report claimed the institute was allegedly "involved in
biological agent production and research before the Gulf War."
A
team of inspectors visited Thursday two sites in Al-Dawrah, around 30
kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, including the former vaccines
laboratory accused of having allegedly been rehabilitated to produce
biological weapons.
A
U.N. spokesman said Friday that helicopters would soon be shipped to
Iraq to allow the arms experts to extend their inspections outside the
Baghdad area.
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An
employee of a vaccine laboratory in Al-Dawrah, south of Baghdad,
shuts the doors of a room visited by inspectors
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"The
helicopters will be arriving soon. They will not be coming all at the
same time but one will be here fairly quickly," Hiro Ueki told AFP,
hinting that the first aircraft was likely to arrive in parts over the
weekend.
"They
will be more than a few and they will be based at Al-Rasheed
airbase," south of the capital.
The
helicopters would be used to transport arms experts to remote areas and
to provide surveillance of suspect sites while they were being inspected
to ensure that there was no movement in or out.
Ueki
confirmed that the U.N. weapons experts would not be making field
inspections Friday, the Muslim day of rest, after their first two days
of checks Wednesday and Thursday.
"They
are consolidating their work today and they are preparing the work of
next week," he said.
U.N.
arms experts resumed inspections Wednesday, nearly four years after
inspectors from the now defunct UNSCOM commission fled the country ahead
of a U.S.-British bombing attack.
The
11 UNMOVIC and six IAEA inspectors visited a total of seven sites.
Under
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 adopted November 8, the teams have
unprecedented powers to search Iraqi sites and question Iraqi scientists
about President Saddam Hussein's alleged arms programs.
Baghdad
has strongly denied having any weapons of mass destruction and says the
inspectors will find nothing incriminating.
It
has to cooperated though. Baghdad is being threatened with "serious
consequences," including military strikes led by the United States
if it does not allow weapons inspectors unfettered access to all
required sites.
As
the inspectors went about their work Thursday, an Iraqi military
spokesman announced that an Iraqi man was killed when U.S. and British
warplanes bombed civilian installations in Nineveh province, 400
kilometers (250 miles) north of Baghdad.
