Inspectors be given more time: Annan: Bush ‘sick & tired’
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 14: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday weapons inspectors should be given more time and expressed optimism about the chances of disarming Iraq without going to war.
“I am both optimistic and hopeful that if we handle the situation right and the pressure on the Iraqi leadership is maintained, and the inspectors continue their work aggressively, we may be able to disarm Iraq peacefully without going to war,” he said at a news conference.
But Annan said the United Nations was “extremely worried about the humanitarian consequences” of military action.
“We have been doing some contingency planning,” he said, because “we don’t want to be caught unprepared.”
The consequences of a military attack on Iraq “could be quite substantial and negative”, notably in the number of refugees it would cause, he said.
Annan said he had not been involved “in any discussions or talks” on the possibility of persuading Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to stand down and leave Iraq.
He said if the arms inspectors reported that Iraq had failed to cooperate with them — a possible trigger for military action — he expected the UN Security Council to adopt a new resolution.
“This is a crucial and important issue,” he said. “I think it is envisaged in Resolution 1441, that the council will meet a second time to take up the matter” if the inspectors report a lack of cooperation.
Resolution 1441, adopted unanimously on Nov 8, threatened Iraq with “serious consequences” if it lied about its weapons of mass destruction and failed to cooperate with inspectors who began work three weeks later.
“We can have a second resolution — the council will take a decision on this very pressing matter,” Annan said through an interpreter, answering one of two questions put to him in French.
TIME RUNNING OUT: US President George Bush said on Tuesday he was “sick and tired” of Iraq’s deception on its suspected weapons of mass destruction and said time was running out for Iraq to comply with UN demands to disarm.
With UN weapons inspectors saying they need months to complete their work in Iraq, Bush signalled a growing impatience.
“So far I haven’t seen any evidence that he has disarmed. Time is running out on Saddam Hussein. He must disarm. I’m sick and tired of games and deception. That’s my view of the timetable,” Bush told reporters as he met Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
The United States has sought to put the onus on Saddam to disarm as required by a UN disarmament resolution rather than on U.N. weapons inspectors to prove Iraq has chemical and biological weapons and is trying to build a nuclear weapon.
“The burden remains on Saddam Hussein. The issue is not how long the inspections will last, the issue is whether Saddam Hussein this time is finally willing to disarm,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
He added, “The inspectors have more time but time is running out. This is a question of not allowing Saddam Hussein to string the world along forever.”
Bush’s top U.S. ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has said no “arbitrary timescale” should limit the mission and Fleischer repeated on Tuesday that Bush had set no “specific timetable”.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix is to give a report on Iraq’s cooperation on Jan 27, which had been seen by some U.S. officials as a potential trigger for war but is now being described by spokesmen as an important date. Blix is to give Iraq key disarmament tasks at the end of March.
Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was in New York meeting Blix, as the United States sought to increase the level of effort by the inspectors and persuade them to interview Iraqi scientists outside of Iraq, which Blix has been reluctant to do.
“It is important they be interviewed without their Iraqi minders and free from threat of violence or intimidation,” said a senior Bush administration official.
The official also said the United States had made clear it would do everything it could to ensure the safety and well being of the scientists and their families.—AFP/Reuters
