Iraq cleared of WMD before war?

2003-06-05 16:42

Lisbon - Iraq was probably free of weapons of mass destruction before the war, which would explain why none of the banned arms have been found, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said in an interview published here on Thursday.

"They may still find something. But the more time passes, the greater is the possibility that no weapons of mass destruction exist there," Blix told the news weekly Visao.

He said: "The greater the number of authorities which coalition inspectors have interviewed, each with higher levels of responsibility than the last, without finding weapons, the more likely it is that they do not exist or that only a few remain."

Coalition forces have so failed to find any trace of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a full eight weeks after Saddam Hussein's overthrow, even though they control the entire country.

US and British leaders have come under mounting pressure to prove their often repeated claims that Baghdad possessed banned weapons and needed to be disarmed by force.

"As far as I know the Iraqi authorities who are in custody have so far not revealed that the country still had arms," said Blix, adding that much of the intelligence which Washington and London used to justify the war on Iraq was shaky, including information which was provided to the United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq to help them in their search for weapons. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA