Word: blix
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though it was not clear at the time, the attempt to build a unified international position on Iraq died that day. Everything that followed--the gnomic reports by Hans Blix, the U.N.'s chief biochemical-weapons inspector; Powell's presentation of new intelligence on Saddam's WMD capabilities; increasingly frantic British efforts to forge a new resolution that might win a majority of the Council--was no more than flowers on the coffin of Resolution 1441. Powell was furious at the Martin Luther King Day ambush. "He had won an internal debate within the Administration...
...order did not distinguish itself in the run-up to Iraq. The French preened for the pacifist European street. Hans Blix's inspection regime wasn't nearly as muscular as it needed to be. NATO fiddled; the U.N. failed. Reality dictates that changes will come. At the very least, American forces--an inexact but not insignificant barometer of American interests--will be drawn down in Western Europe and moved east to friendlier (and less expensive) billets like Hungary. But a more important transition is imminent as Asia supplants Europe as the focus of American foreign policy. This may well lead...
...Blix offered no specific reasons for his decision, although he drew attention to the fact that the mission of UNMOVIC, which he came out of retirement in March 2000 to lead, will have been dramatically altered by the war. "One phase is over and the U.S. decided that inspections were not an avenue through which you could achieve the verified disarmament of Iraq," Blix said. "Later on, there may be some long term monitoring of some kind, but that is a new phase...
...Blix took the UNMOVIC position after having served for 17 years as the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (the UN atomic watchdog). He was summoned out of retirement by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan after Security Council members failed to agree on the nomination of fellow Swede Rolf Ekeus to head UNMOVIC. Blix's appointment was unanimously approved by the Security Council, and he led the inspectors back into Iraq last November following the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1441. Last Tuesday, Annan ordered the evacuation of all UN personnel from Iraq, a day before...
...interviews and a Security Council appearance since the inspectors' departure from Iraq, Blix has been publicly critical of the U.S. for what he sees as a premature decision to terminate the inspectors work...