BAGHDAD, Jan 5: Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations was left fuming on Sunday after UN weapons experts trapped him inside a Baghdad office block for six hours as they inspected an adjacent building.

Mohammed al-Duri was visiting Iraq’s liaison body with the UN teams, the National Monitoring Directorate, when the inspectors swooped on a chemical research company next door and barred all movement into or out of the whole headquarters compound.

“There is no explanation for that,” an indignant Duri told reporters when he was finally able to leave the building after the inspectors’ departure.

“For me anyway, it is an unacceptable behaviour — unacceptable, because they don’t have to block everybody.

“We are not here because of the inspection, just for a private visit ... I think they can behave in another manner,” said Duri, who was back in Baghdad for a meeting of Iraqi ambassadors.

National Monitoring Directorate chief General Hossam Mohammed Amin echoed his visitor’s complaints.

“He came to visit me for 10 minutes but because of the inspection team, of the restrictions which took place, he was not able to go until 2.30 p.m, I mean, after six hours,” fumed Amin.

But he made clear that despite its anger, Iraq had made no move to impede the inspection for fear of giving the United States a pretext to claim that it was withholding its cooperation.

“We did not want to raise a complaint because perhaps it will be interpreted as opposition or objection to the inspection itself,” the Iraqi chief liaison said.

“So I did not want to object to the behaviour of the inspection team, not to give them any pretext that Iraq is trying to put obstacles in front of the inspection.” Asked whether he feared Washington would use any such obstacle as a pretext to lead military action, he said: “Of course.”

But Amin accused the inspectors of pushing their powers to the limit. “I think they wanted to exercise their maximum intrusiveness, maximum hardness of implementation of Resolution 1441,” he said.

The Iraqi information ministry had initially reported that the liaison body headed by Amin was the target of Sunday’s inspection, but later clarified it was the adjacent Al-Bassel chemical company.—AFP