Word: blix
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...arms inspections in Iraq are working for the Bush administration. Although Dr. Hans Blix told the Security Council on Monday that Baghdad had, for the most part, allowed inspectors prompt and free access to inspection sites, the bulk of his report-back consisted of a catalogue of troubling questions over weapons inventories that Iraq has thus far evaded, and instances where Iraqi cooperation has been less than forthcoming. Blix emphasized, as U.S. and British officials have for weeks, that the onus is on Iraq to prove its commitment to disarmament through active cooperation - and he left the Council...
...Short of finding a smoking gun, Blix's report couldn't have been better for U.S. efforts to win international consent for military action against Iraq. France, Germany, Russia and China remain unconvinced by U.S. allegations that Iraq represents an imminent danger, and oppose military action right now, insisting instead that the inspection process be given more time. Britain backs the U.S. position but the skepticism of the British electorate requires that Washington seek UN authorization for an attack. Iraq's Arab and Turkish neighbors oppose a war, but have resigned themselves to its inevitability and have put the onus...
...Iraq, appeared late last week to have fallen in step with the hawks' timeline, despite having argued only two weeks ago that the inspectors needed a lot more time. Still, the U.S. looks unlikely to call a halt to inspections and move to military action in the wake of Blix's report. President Bush will likely use his State of the Union address Tuesday to amplify his argument that Saddam has failed to disarm and therefore made military action all but inevitable, but he is unlikely to use the speech as a platform for declaring...
...inspectors have found little more than some documents that still have to be deciphered and a dozen empty chemical warheads that the Iraqis say they overlooked - a haul unlikely to be viewed as sufficient to make a definitive case. "We are the eyes and ears of the Security Council," Blix protested last week in Baghdad after meeting with Iraqi officials. "How the Security Council will react, what will be the political evaluation, that is up to them...
...Cooperation, however, hasn't been easy, as the inspectors' experience of trying to interview senior scientists shows. After meeting last weekend with officials in Baghdad, Blix extracted a promise that scientists would be 'encouraged' to participate in interviews - but most are still resisting because they fear being executed in the future, when the world is no longer watching. UNMOVIC has to cope with diplomacy issues as well: Baghdad refused to allow UN surveillance planes in its airspace demanding first that America halt its "illegal" intrusions (the "no-fly" zone patrols) during the UN missions. The UN could not make that...