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US steps up hunt for banned weapons
18/04/2003 13:03 - (SA)
Baghdad - Iraq's neighbours prepared for a meeting on Friday to moderate US influence over the country's future as Washington began deploying a 1 000-strong force to hunt down Saddam Hussein's alleged arsenal of banned weapons.
US defence officials, quoted by CNN, said the "Iraq Survey Group" would probably be led by a general and consist of military personnel, government intelligence analysts, civilian scientists and private contractors.
News of the deployment came as chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix called for his inspectors to return to Iraq and compile a new report on Baghdad's alleged weapons of mass destruction, the main justification claimed by Washington and London for launching the war on March 20.
As the focus switched away from the conflict to postwar Iraq, top US general Richard Myers became the first US official to declare victory.
But more strife was looming between the United States and other members of the UN security council over the question of lifting sanctions against Iraq, while Washington also aroused controversy by awarding a lucrative reconstruction project to a US company.
And as the US adminstration turned up the heat on Damascus, secretary of state Colin Powell said he hoped to visit Syria as part of a trip to the Middle East in the near future that could see the release of a long-awaited road map for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
On the US weapons team, CNN quoted a Pentagon official as saying that initial elements were already on the ground in Iraq and the full contingent should be operational within two weeks.
This latest effort to locate the weapons, said CNN, underscores the growing Pentagon view that Washington no longer expects to find them on its own, but will have to offer rewards to Iraqis to draw out information on where to look.
The report was in line with statements earlier by defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.
"It is not like a treasure hunt," he said. "The (UN weapons) inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will. What we will do is find the people who will tell us."
In an interview with the BBC, Blix said his inspectors could give credibility to any discovery of banned weapons made by US or British troops.
"I think the world would like to have a credible report on the absence or the eradication of the programme of weapons of mass destruction."
But the White House said it was not yet time to discuss the possible return of the inspectors, who were withdrawn from Iraq one month ago on the eve of the US-led invasion.
So far, the United States and Britain have not found any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq, although they control almost the entire country.
Blix said it was "too early to draw conclusions", but added that he was "a little more inclined" than before to believe the insistence of the now defunct Iraqi government that it no longer had any such weapons.
In the Gulf, foreign ministers from six countries bordering Iraq, as well as those of regional heavyweight Egypt and current Arab league chairman Bahrain, started arriving in Riyadh for crucial talks on the country's future.
The talks were aimed at giving the countries their say on the formation of a new national government in Baghdad and also limiting the US military presence.
Beyond discussing their neighbour's new political landscape, the ministers were also expected to discuss ways of restoring stability in Baghdad.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Cairo rejected the appointment of a US military ruler for Iraq and warned that no government will be recognised unless it reflected the free will of the Iraqi people.
In Washington, Myers, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared victory in the war, even though his verdict was not repeated by Rumsfeld, who studiously avoided saying the conflict was over.
"Your courage, your talent, your leadership have given us up to this point a tremendous combat victory," Myers told a celebration event at the Pentagon.
On the ground, the US military said on Thursday its forces in Baghdad captured Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti, seen as a major coup in US efforts to round up members of the toppled regime.
Barzan's capture came more than a week after Baghdad fell to US troops, but bloody incidents in several parts of Iraq marred US efforts to put a lid on post-Saddam chaos and start rebuilding the shattered country.
But the fate of Saddam himself, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist since 1979, remains a mystery.
Baghdad's five million people remained largely without water and power early on Friday after three weeks of bombing destroyed much of the capital's infrastructure, but US marines said they hoped to restore electricity to half of the population later in the day.
Washington said it would use some of the $1.7bn in confiscated Iraqi funds in the United States to pay Iraqi civil servants in the war-scarred nation.
With the focus moving away from fighting, the United States said FBI agents were in Baghdad investigating the looting of priceless treasures from the capital's main antiquities museum.
After the Baghdad museum was virtually emptied of its Mesopatamia-era antiquities, an FBI official told a Washington news conference, "We are firmly committed to doing whatever we can to secure these treasures for the people of Iraq."
Bush's top cultural advisor resigned in protest of US failure to stop the looting, according to a letter released on Thursday.
US military sources also said that the marines will leave Baghdad no later than April 22, when the US army - which unlike the Marines is traditionally responsible for civil affairs - will take over control of the city.
With post-war reconstruction now a top priority, the United Nations urged that sufficient resources be made available for the shattered country as the European Union called for the UN to play a central role.
"Any role entrusted to the United Nations, beyond the purely humanitarian, (must be) consistent with the (UN) charter, and matched by the necessary resources," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Athens.
A further conflict is looming on the UN security council, where some members were ferociously opposed to military action on Iraq, about whether to lift sanctions that have been imposed on Iraq since the Gulf war.
Russia, which fears its economy could be badly damaged by free trade of Iraq's oil resources, said it would not support a United States proposal to lift UN sanctions on Iraq unless it is confirmed that the country has no weapons of mass destruction.
The Bush administration, meanwhile, awarded a contract worth up to $680m to the US Bechtel Group for major reconstruction of war-scarred Iraq, the US Agency for International Development said on Thursday.
The doling out of contracts to US companies for the rebuilding of Iraq has unleashed an international and domestic furore. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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