Blix Suspects There are No Weapons of Mass Destruction

"I am obviously very interested in the question of whether or not there were weapons of mass destruction, and I am beginning to suspect there possibly were none," Mr Blix told the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel.

He added that "in this respect" the war might not have been justified.

If that were the case, he said, Iraq's evasive behaviour in recent years could be due to Saddam Hussein's fixation with Iraqi honour and a wish to dictate the conditions under which people could enter the country.

"For that reason, he said 'no' in many situations and gave the impression he was hiding something," he said.

Mr Blix pointed to statements by Lt Gen Amer al-Saadi, who officials say led Iraq's unconventional weapons programmes and surrendered to US-led forces last month.

"The fact that al-Saadi surrendered and said there were no weapons of mass destruction has led to me to ask myself whether there actually were any," Mr Blix told the paper. "I don't see why he would still be afraid of the regime, and other leading figures have said the same."

The US based its war on Iraq on claims the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction and had active programmes to produce more. UN inspectors had not found stocks of chemical or biological weapons by the time they were forced to leave the country on the eve of the US-led attack.

Mr Blix told the German paper that his teams remain to help the search if required.

Washington is carrying out inspections of its own, which have so far failed to turn up evidence of WMD stocks. The White House has resisted a resumption of the UN inspections.

A UN resolution approved yesterday that ended sanctions against Iraq left the future of UN inspections in doubt.

The resolution reaffirms that "Iraq must meet its disarmament obligations" and says the council will discuss the inspectors' mandate later. It gives no timeframe.

"Given the tense security situation, it would not at present be practically feasible to send UN inspectors to Iraq," Mr Blix said. "I also have the impression that the negative attitude toward UN inspectors ... is turning into a generally defensive attitude toward the United Nations."

"If the security council decided that UN inspectors should verify evidence, findings and reports alongside the allies, our organisation would be prepared to do that," he said.


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