Posted on 02/09/2003 7:22:08 AM PST by prisoner6
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials gave the chief U.N. arms inspectors more documents during meetings Sunday morning, a day after the two sides had "useful" talks to answer some questions about old chemical and biological weapons.
The value of the new documents delivered Sunday was not immediately clear, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said after the session ended.
The success or failure of the two days of talks could help decide the next steps taken by the U.N. Security Council in the months-long standoff that has left Iraq suspended between war and peace.
Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N. nuclear agency, entered the Foreign Ministry at about 10:15 a.m. for the morning session with an Iraqi delegation led by presidential adviser Amer al-Saadi.
ElBaradei's spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the Iraqis gave the chief inspectors more documents in the morning session, which ended two hours later. He said they had "very detailed technical discussions."
The meeting was to resume in the afternoon, and the inspectors were expected to depart Baghdad on Monday morning.
In Moscow, a top Russian diplomat on Sunday urged Iraq to take "additional steps" to clear up questions about its weapons programs.
Iraq "should take additional steps toward improvement of cooperation with the international community and clearing up remaining unresolved questions," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Both new progress and a setback were reported late Saturday on a procedural issue, that of private interviews, which is important to U.N. arms controllers.
Inspectors believe that Iraqi scientists will be more candid about banned weapons programs in interviews not monitored by Iraqi officials. ElBaradei's experts conducted such an interview Saturday with a chemist — the fifth private interview in three days. But the U.N. inspection agency said a biologist sought for a private interview had declined.
It could not immediately be determined whether the chemist had been put forward by Iraqi officials, or was invited by U.N. inspectors.
Blix and ElBaradei were looking for quick Iraqi concessions on other practical matters as well in the disarmament effort, such as clearance to fly American U-2 reconnaissance planes in support of inspections.
On the more substantive issues, the chief inspectors were demanding documents or witnesses to clear up discrepancies in Iraq's accounting for anthrax, the nerve agent VX and other weapons of mass destruction produced and destroyed over a decade ago.
After Saturday's session, more than four hours of talks, Blix told reporters, "It is useful discussions we are having. ... It was a very substantial discussion." ElBaradei said the Iraqis had presented unspecified "explanations on some of the issues."
The Baghdad talks will set the tone for reports Blix and ElBaradei will submit next Friday to the U.N. Security Council, whose member nations are searching for unanimity on the next step in the explosive crisis.
The council majority wants something short of a U.N. authorization for war against Iraq, sought by President Bush (news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites).
Washington and London contend that Iraq retains chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs prohibited by U.N. resolutions, and threaten a military strike if not satisfied Saddam has disarmed.
The Bush administration has increasingly expressed impatience with the U.N. inspections process, although it voted with all other Security Council members last November to send the inspectors back with greater powers to search for forbidden arms.
During Sunday's daily inspections, one U.N. team surveyed the grounds of an elementary school in the Baghdad district of Zafaraniyah. They were seen by journalists using a detection device to check a school yard area. Because of a holiday, no children were in attendance. There was no immediate explanation of the purpose of the surprise inspection.
Meanwhile, coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone in southern Iraq on Saturday night attacked an Iraqi military mobile command and control near Al Kut, about 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said in a statement Sunday.
The facility's presence in the no-fly zone was a threat to coalition aircraft, the statement said.
prisoner6
They're just throwing junk at Blix in the hope of buying time. Unless these documents are real bombshells then Blix wont see them as anything important.
but, but..I gave you my complete report 3 months ago.
Give me a break.
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