The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
360.
The third
Ministerial-level meeting of the Security Council to discuss Iraq
took
place on 14
February.
361.
Dr Blix
reported that UNMOVIC had not found any weapons of
mass
destruction
and the items that were not accounted for might not exist, but
Iraq
needed to
provide the evidence to answer the questions, not belittle
them.
362.
Dr Blix
pointed out that the evidence that Iraq had prepared for
inspections
by cleaning
up sites and removing evidence, presented to the Security
Council
by Secretary
Powell on 5 February, could have a different
interpretation.
363.
Dr Blix
told the Security Council that:
•
The total
number of UNMOVIC staff in Iraq had increased to more than
250.
The regional
office in Mosul was “fully operational” and plans for a
regional
office in
Basra were “being developed”. UNMOVIC had conducted more
than
400 inspections
covering more than 300 sites.
•
“All
inspections were performed without notice, and access was almost
always
provided
promptly. In no case have we seen convincing evidence that the
Iraqi
side knew
in advance that the inspectors were coming.”
•
Inspections
were “effectively helping to bridge the gap in knowledge” that
had
arisen
because of the absence of inspectors between December 1998
and
November
2002.
•
UNMOVIC had
informed the Iraqi authorities that it planned to start
U-2
surveillance
flights early the following week and was still expanding
its
capabilities.
•
Intelligence
information provided to UNMOVIC had been “gradually
increasing”.
But there
were “limitations” and “misinterpretations” could
occur.
•
Three
persons who had previously refused interviews on UNMOVIC’s
terms
had given
“informative” interviews just before the visit to Baghdad by
Dr Blix
and Dr ElBaradei.
Dr Blix hoped that Iraq’s commitment to encourage
persons
to accept
interviews would mean further interviews would be
accepted.
•
UNMOVIC had
begun the process of destroying approximately 50
litres
of mustard
gas declared by Iraq.
•
More than
200 chemical and more than 100 biological samples had
been
collected.
Three-quarters of the samples had already been tested and
the
results
were consistent with Iraq’s declarations.101
101
UN Security
Council, ‘4707th Meeting Friday 14 February 2003’
(S/PV.4707).
244