The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
132.
Following IAEA
inspections in May and June 1991, and a meeting in
Baghdad, Mr Ahmed
Hussein, Iraq’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, wrote to
the
UN Secretary-General
on 7 July stating that Iraq had “decided that it would
be
appropriate
to give an account” of its “peaceful nuclear
programme”.54
133.
In an
“overview” attached to the letter, Iraq stated that the programme
had
begun
in 1956, after the US had announced that it was launching a
peaceful nuclear
programme,
and it had been implemented in three stages:
•
Collaboration
with some Western countries and then the Soviet Union
with
the
objective of building a “research reactor and laboratories for
producing
radioactive
isotopes for medical and industrial applications”.
•
Accession
to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and related system of
safeguards
followed by
“agreements with France, Italy and other countries” in relation to
the
nuclear
fuel cycle allowed Iraq to achieve:
{{experimental
laboratories producing nuclear fuel for nuclear power
plants;
{{research
laboratories for processing spent nuclear fuel;
{{the
nuclear power plant programme;
{{uranium
extraction from phosphate ores; and
{{the
establishment of the Tammuz 155
reactor and
related facilities and
equipment,
which Israel had destroyed on 7 June 1981.
•
As a result
of the inability of international guarantees and bilateral
agreements to
protect
facilities and personnel from aggression, it had been “necessary to
adopt
new
formulas … to acquire the relevant nuclear know-how … of the
nuclear fuel
cycle,
through self-reliance and the non-disclosure of
information.”
134.
Iraq admitted
that in the third stage it had:
•
extracted
uranium from carbonate ores;
•
purified
and converted uranium-bearing compounds;
•
enriched
uranium isotopes using the electromagnetic method;
•
enriched
uranium isotopes using the centrifugal method; and
•
enriched
isotopes by chemical methods.
135.
Iraq stated
that the US had bombed its declared nuclear facilities and
reactors
whilst they
were in operation and that was “equivalent to a nuclear attack”
which had
endangered
the population and the environment.
54
Letter
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iraq to Secretary-General of the
United Nations, 7 July 1991,
[untitled],
attaching ‘Overview of the Iraqi nuclear programme’ and
tables.
55
This
reactor is frequently referred to as Osirak.
48