BAGHDAD, Jan 25: UN inspectors failed to persuade three Iraqis, including two scientists, to agree to private interviews on Saturday, a day after Washington accused Iraq of blocking such meetings in the search for banned weapons.
“(Inspectors) requested yesterday further interviews with Iraqi personnel in private. Two individuals did not agree to it without the presence of a witness. Thus, the interviews did not take place today,” a statement said.
Nuclear inspectors also failed to get an expert at the al-Rimah factory in Mosul in northern Iraq to talk to them in private, an Iraqi foreign ministry statement said.
“The meeting was held over two hours and 40 minutes in the presence of an Iraqi monitoring representative, during which the expert answered all questions put to him,” it said.
An Iraqi thought to be a scientist visited a Baghdad hotel housing arms inspectors, accompanied by officials of the Iraqi Monitoring Directorate, which liaises with the U.N. experts.
But he left alone 90 minutes later, carrying documents and refusing to speak to reporters. The Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera named him as Alaa al-Jaafari from the government al-Fatah Military Industries Establishment.
The United States accused Iraq on Friday of preventing scientists from taking part in private interviews.—Reuters
