Brussels, 16/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - Iraq "must do more to render its attitude credible … and convince the Security Council .. The only other solution in sight is armed action against Iraq", the head of the UN disarmament inspectors, Hans Blix, warned on Thursday, having come to Brussels to meet successively the EU High Representative for foreign policy, Javier Solana, European Commissioner Chris Patten and the Political and Security Committee (Psc). "The message we shall deliver in Iraq is that the situation is very tense and dangerous", Hans Blix told the press, who is going to Baghdad on Saturday. The head of the inspectors for weapons of mass destruction, speaking after his meeting with Javier Solana, urged Iraq not only to grant access to the sites but allow the inspectors to speak without witnesses to Iraqi scientists "so that they are not intimidated", and let them go testify abroad if they so wish. He also wants access to the archives and the budget. The inspectors have discovered conventional military equipment, imported illegally, but without for now being able to say whether this could be linked to weapons of mass destruction, he indicated.
The head of the United Nations mission thinks that the date of 27 January, when the inspectors have to submit a report, is too early for it to be a question of a complete evaluation. "I do not believe that history will end on 27 January. It will not be a formal report, and I'm almost certain that the Security Council will ask us for an update in February", he said. "We are in no one's pocket, neither the United States nor anyone else, we answer to the Security Council in its entirety", he replied to a question on the mission's independence.
"A war in Iraq may be avoided, the responsibility is that of Saddam Hussein", declared Javier Solana, for his part. "It would be much better if there were a second UN resolution" to decide on whether to trigger an armed conflict in Iraq, he stipulated, considering that this "represents the general position of all countries members of the European Union".
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, responsible for verifying the existence of atomic weapons in Iraq, had previously made very similar comments, in Moscow. "Iraq should understand that if we continue to indicate that questions remain open and that we cannot rule out the possibility that there still are weapons of mass destruction, that will not satisfy the Security Council", he declared. He also said that the inspectors "are going to ask for at least a few months to do our job", he said.
Having, he too, met Hans Blix, the chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Elmar Brok (CDU) deplored the fact that the EU had not taken a stronger stance in the debate on Iraq. "The EU must try to speak as one", he told journalists, regretting that the EU should have "missed the opportunity this summer, when Blair declared that in any case he would follow the United States, and Schroeder in no case". In a press release, Brok said that Blix had said he agreed with the sending of an ad hoc European Parliament delegation to Iraq, as long as the mission carried out its work in full agreement with the UN inspectors. Mr. Brok added, in the same press release, that one essential condition for the departure of the parliamentary delegation would be a "personal meeting with Saddam Hussein".