Iraqi workers unload the U.N. inspectors' equipment at Saddam International airport in Baghdad

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." 

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