The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
Dr Blix
said that interviews with minders were not “without value”, but “a
long
pattern of
refusals to attend private interviews would be hard to interpret
as
anything
other than intimidation”.
•
Denial of
access to a private house would be a serious matter.
•
Dr ElBaradei
said that the documents found at a private home “looked like
a
scientist’s
personal collection of papers over 30 years”. They had “not
added
to IAEA
knowledge and it was impossible to judge whether this was an
example
of hidden
documents”.
•
The IAEA
had no authority to force people to give interviews.
730.
Sir Jeremy
commented that the day had been important and a good
foundation
for “a
harder debate on 29 January”. He concluded:
“If we play
this carefully, and can win a bit more time, we might be able to
construct
a bit more
of an edifice.”
731.
In a press
statement on 28 January, Mr Straw published “a list of 10 key
questions”
from Dr
Blix’s report.246
Mr Straw
also stated:
“The
conclusion is now inescapable that Iraq is in material breach of
resolution 1441.
We want to
see the matter resolved … by peaceful means … The regime does
not
have long
to change its behaviour fundamentally. We cannot let Saddam
Hussein
and the
Iraqi regime get away with never-ending deceit and
delay.”
732.
Russia
emphasised the need for political efforts through the Security
Council
to disarm
Iraq.
733.
In a press
conference in New York after the meeting, Mr Sergei Lavrov,
Russian
Permanent
Representative to the UN, stated that Russia believed the
inspections were
“going
well” and a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in Moscow
stated:
“only inspections can give an answer to the international
community’s question
about
whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction”.247
Mr Igor
Ivanov told US NBC
that
Russian diplomats would try to find a solution which would preserve
the Security
Council’s
unity.
734.
Sir Roderic
Lyne, British Ambassador to Russia, reported that all Russian
officials
were
playing down the significance of the reports to the Security
Council, “emphasising
that they
were only preliminary findings”. Russia was keeping its options
open on future
handling of
the issue “while calling for the inspections to
continue”.
246
The
National Archives, 28 January 2002, Iraq is in
Material Breach of Resolution 1441.
247
Telegram 28
Moscow to FCO London, 28 January 2003, ‘Russia/Iraq: Russian
Response
to UNSC Reports’.
130