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| Iraq |
| Iraq Studying Order to Destroy Missiles |
| 2003-02-23 |
| Iraq has made no decision yet on a U.N. order that it destroy its Al Samoud 2 missile program, Iraq's chief liaison to U.N. inspectors said Sunday as inspectors visited plants involved in producing the missile. Gen. Hossam Mohamed Amin told journalists that destroying the missiles would hurt Iraq's defenses, but not fatally so. It "would affect our fighting capabilities, but it would not finish them or affect them greatly," he said. "This missile represents only one aspect of our defensive capabilities." "They're short-range missiles. Our SCUDs will go much further..." Baghdad's decision on the Al Samoud 2 missile will likely be a factor as the U.N. Security Council weighs a new Iraq resolution that Washington and London are expected to present Monday as they seek support for possible military action. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that if Baghdad refused the order on the Al Samoud, "the Security Council will have to make a decision." Oh, no! Not a decision! He said he was optimistic Iraq would comply. "I don't see why they would not destroy them," the U.N. chief told reporters in Turkey. Amin repeated Iraq's claims that it is "clean" of weapons of mass destruction and insisted no new U.N. resolution is needed "because Iraq is cooperating with the inspectors." "We're expending the absolute minimum effort to give the impression we are, anyway..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Matt Yglesias made a point, Blix only asked that the weapons be destroyed, not the facilities and/or the testing ramp which can handle bigger motors. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-02-23 22:52:33 |