Iraqi soldiers stand guard outside a gas factory as U.N. arms inspectors search inside at al-Taje

BAGHDAD, December 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A U.N. arms inspector interviewed Thursday, December 26, the head of Baghdad’s Technology University in the second “reported” meeting with Iraqi scientists in an attempt to prove that Iraq possesses the alleged weapons programs.

The interview with Mazen Mohammad began in his offices about 9:00 am (0600 GMT), the university press bureau said, and was continuing 90 minutes later, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

A sole inspector carried out the interview with Mohammed in the presence of one or more representatives of Iraq’s National Monitoring Directorate which liaisons with the U.N. inspection teams.

Journalists were kept out of the building, but university staff however said reporters would be allowed inside after the talks.

U.N. inspections spokesman Hiro Ueki refused to comment on the meeting underway, AFP said.

The United States has urged the inspectors to use their powers under disarmament resolution 1441 to spirit Iraqi weapons scientists and their families out of the country to “interview” them safe from any intimidation by the Baghdad regime.

Earlier, the Washington Post said that several senior officials have made clear in that they see the interviews – with scientists and technicians who worked in past and present Iraqi weapons and missile programs – as the quickest way to declare Baghdad in material breach of the new resolution without going through a lengthy inspections process that may ultimately be inconclusive.

Professor Sabah Abdul Noor, one of the first Iraqi scientist to be interviewed by U.N inspectors

Mohammad’s interview is the second reported meeting with U.N. inspectors after an Iraqi scientist, who was involved in the country’s previous nuclear program, was questioned by U.N. arms experts on Tuesday, December 24.

The inspectors had Tuesday, December 24, interviewed an Iraqi scientist privately for the first time since they resumed work on November 27.

Sabah Abd El-Nur, a professor at the technology university, had previously been linked to Iraq’s nuclear program, AFP said.

He said his name figured on a list of Iraqi scientists the inspectors wanted to question, adding that he had been interviewed by representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before the last round of inspections ended in December 1998.

Abd El-Nur had told journalists “the inspectors asked me for a personal interview and proposed that it be in private.”

“I apologized and asked for the presence of a member of the National Monitoring Directorate, who arrived, and the meeting lasted more than an hour,” he said.

Asked why the inspectors would want to interview him, Abd El-Nur said he had been “linked with the previous nuclear program.”

Asked whether his interviewers had proposed that he travel abroad to be interviewed, Abd El-Nur said no, and added: “We have nothing to hide in Iraq.”

He said the meeting was “cordial” and took place “in an atmosphere of cooperation and professionalism.”