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Big test for pride of Iraqi arsenal
The first major test of the United Nations route to the peaceful disarmament of Iraq could come this week if UN inspectors demand the destruction of the country's most prized weapon - its arsenal of Al-Samoud 2 missiles. Sammy's going to love this. The US is expected to insist that the Al-Samouds be surrendered and destroyed as a test of Iraqi compliance after UN experts found last week that the missile was capable of flying beyond the 150km (93-mile) limit imposed on Baghdad's missile programme after the 1991 Gulf war. However, Iraq's deputy prime "Heck, their range is about 90 klicks, give or take a 100 or so." In his report to the security council on Friday, the chief UN inspector, Hans Blix, declared the Al-Samoud 2 "proscribed", as well as 380 engines Iraq had imported for the missile, but he did not say whether the weapons had to be destroyed. Of course he didn't say. That would have been mighty bold for our courageous Blixie. He also banned casting chambers for motors which he said could be used for missiles of a much longer range. Wonder where those came from? A report in the New York Times said that Washington would demand the destruction of the offending weapons as part of a "final round of tests" to gauge Iraq's willingness to disarm voluntarily. However, US officials said at the weekend that the Bush administration had yet to decide whether to pursue the UN route to disarmament in the face of clear resistance in the security council to a resolution backing military action. If the US did demand the missiles' destruction, it is likely to win support from a majority on the security council, which is anxious to show that peaceful disarmament can work. From a majority? Let me guess who's on the other side. Declassified CIA intelligence reports have singled out the liquid-fuel Al-Samoud as a possible means of delivering chemical or biological weapons. It is also thought that four Al-Samoud missiles could be clustered together to produce a single improvised missile which could threaten Iraq's neighbours. They can't get one of them to fly straight, how in the world are they going to "cluster" four of them? Posted by: Steve White 2003-02-17 |
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