19 December 2002
U.S. Says Iraqi Declaration Constitutes "Material Breach"
(Weapons inspectors say Iraq "missed an opportunity") (1520) By Wendy S. Ross and Juda Aita Washington File Staff Correspondents Washington -- United States experts have concluded that Iraq's arms declaration to the United Nations Security Council constitutes "another material breach" by the Saddam Hussein government, Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters December 19. The declaration by Iraq, he said, is "anything but currently accurate, full or complete." Powell held a news conference at the State Department to comment on developments earlier in the day at the United Nations Security Council in New York. There Hans Blix, executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), met privately with the council, their first meeting since receiving what Iraq said was its full, final and complete declaration of its weapons of mass destruction on December 7. The important point "from what we heard from Dr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei this morning, and what I heard from other members of the council who have spoken, is that there is no question that Iraq continues its pattern of noncooperation, its pattern of deception, its pattern of dissembling, its pattern of lying. And if that is going to be the way they continue through the weeks ahead, then we're not going to find a peaceful solution to this problem," Powell said. "The Iraqi declaration may use the language of Resolution 1441, but it totally fails to meet the resolution's requirements," he said. "The inspectors said that Iraq has failed to provide new information. We agree. Indeed, thousands of the document's pages are merely a resubmission of material it gave the United Nations years ago, material that the U.N. has already determined was incomplete. "Other sections of the Iraqi declaration consist of long passages copied from reports written by the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The only changes the Iraqi regime made were to remove references critical to its own conduct. The declaration totally fails to address what we had learned about Iraq's prohibited weapons programs before the inspectors were effectively forced out in 1998," Powell said. "Most brazenly of all, the Iraqi declaration denies the existence of any prohibited weapons programs at all. The United States, the United Nations and the world waited for this declaration from Iraq. But Iraq's response is a catalogue of recycled information and flagrant omissions. It should be obvious that the pattern of systematic holes and gaps in Iraq's declaration is not the result of accidents or editing oversights or technical mistakes. These are material omissions that, in our view, constitute another material breach," he said. That term, he added, makes "clear to the world that, once again, we have a breach on the part of Iraq with respect to its obligations and therefore the spots have not changed." The burden remains on Iraq, he said, "to cooperate fully and for Iraq to prove to the international community whether it does or does not have weapons of mass destruction. We are convinced they do until they prove to us otherwise." "Unfortunately, this declaration fails totally to move us in the direction of a peaceful solution," he said. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte told journalists after the closed-door Security Council meeting that Iraq's declaration is "padded with reams of extraneous material" while failing to address scores of questions pending since 1998. The chief weapons inspectors told council members that Iraq missed an opportunity to provide additional data on its weapons program and, therefore, a number of questions remain unanswered, especially those relating to the amount of precursor chemicals and agents for the production of biological weapons, and work on extending the range of missiles. They said that the questions from UNMOVIC's predecessor, the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), and a special report prepared for the council in 1999 called the Amorin Report have not been answered by evidence in Iraq's new declaration. The weapons inspectors told the council that their overall impression after the initial review of Iraq's declaration is that "not much new significant information has been provided" and "not much new supporting documentation or other evidence been submitted," according to a text of the statements released by the U.N. "It would appear that the part that covered biological weapons is essentially a reorganized version of a previous declaration provided by Iraq to UNSCOM in September 1997," Blix told the council. "In the chemical weapons area, the basis of the current declaration is a declaration submitted by Iraq in 1996 with subsequent updates and explanations. In the missile field, the declaration follows the same format and seems to have largely the same content as Iraq's 1996 missile declaration and updates." The new information Iraq provided on chemical weapons "does not resolve outstanding issues" but may help the inspectors get a better understanding of the fate of the precursors, Blix said. In his statement to the council, ElBaradei said that "Iraq's current declaration of its nuclear program prior to 1991 contains no substantive changes from the (full, final, complete declaration) provided to IAEA in 1998. The declaration does contain numerous clarifications but does not include any additional documentation related to areas which were identified in previous IAEA reports as requiring further clarification, particularly weapons design or centrifuge development." During meetings in Baghdad in November 2002, the IAEA director said, Iraq acknowledged that it had made several unsuccessful attempts since 1991 to import high-strength aluminum tubing saying that it was for use in 81 mm rockets and not for the enrichment of uranium. Iraq made no mention of the issue in the new declaration and IAEA will be pursuing the issue, he said. Speaking with journalists outside the council chambers, Blix said that "an opportunity was missed in the declaration to give a lot of evidence. They can still provide it and I hope they provide it to us orally, bit it would have been better if it had been in the declaration." "We are consistent in the view that there has been relatively little given in the declaration by way of evidence concerning the weapons of mass destruction material concerning the period 1998 and 2002 in the non-nuclear weapons field," Blix said. For example, ElBaradei said, "we know there was a lot of production of chemical agents, but there is no evidence that these agents have been destroyed. I think that is the kind of evidence we need. We need either to see documents, we need people to speak to us and confirm that these things have been destroyed or we need to see a sample of that, of what has been destroyed." Blix pointed out that Iraq had acknowledged that prior to 1991 it had produced 8,500 liters of anthrax, but did not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that production was limited to 8,500. By 1998 UNSCOM had calculated that Iraq had the capacity to produce three times as much -- as high as 24,000 liters. Iraq declared that it had destroyed all anthrax, he said. "There was some evidence given that they had destroyed some of it. There was not sufficient evidence to show that all was destroyed. Hence there is a question: Is there still some anthrax in Iraq?" The two directors said that they will be pressing ahead vigorously with inspections. United Kingdom Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock called the declaration "inadequate." "The declaration was an opportunity to deal with these questions. That it has not done so we find deeply disappointing. There are a whole number of areas that should have been accounted for in this declaration that have not been accounted for. That amounts, in our view, to a rejection by Iraq of the opportunity that resolution 1441 afforded to deal with those areas and clear our minds," Greenstock said. France released a statement after the meeting concurring with the weapons inspectors' assessment. "Despite its volume, the Iraqi declaration provides only few new elements," the French statement said. "The consistency of some elements can be questioned." "Therefore, the declaration does not clearly answer unresolved and pending questions identified in 1999. It doesn't lift the doubts about the possible continuation of Iraq of prohibited activities since December 1998 when the inspectors left the country. There are still question marks," the statement said. Council President Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia said that council members want to have another session with the inspectors in early January after all 15 council members finish their own analysis of the declaration. In addition, the president said, council members want several more briefings with UNMOVIC and the IAEA before the January 27 deadline when the weapons inspectors are required by resolution 1441 to brief the council on their progress in verifying the data. Ambassador Negroponte said that in the days ahead the United States will continue to analyze the declaration, consult with allies and other council members, and support the work of the U.N. weapons inspectors. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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