The long-awaited report by two UN chief inspectors Monday on Iraq's compliance with relevant Security Council resolutions met with mixed reactions from member states of the United Nations.
The majority of countries seemed to share the view that the inspectors should be given more time to go on with their work and it is still premature to come to the conclusion that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction, though there is no evidence so far to rule out such a possibility.
Sergey Lavrov, Russian ambassador to the UN, noted that the chief inspectors' report showed no evidence that Iraq has resumed programs of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
"...all these news finds or physical documents will not change the basic conclusion that the inspectors don't have any evidence that Iraq has resumed WMD programs nor can they assert all these programs have been stopped," he said.
He said Iraq's 10-point statement with inspectors showed its readiness to provide active cooperation, which should be certainly encouraged.
Chinese deputy representative to the UN Zhang Yishan reiterated China's position that the inspections should continue and inspectors be given more time to finish their work.
He said the inspectors would go on with their work entrusted by the Security Council resolution 1441 "impartially, objectively and professionally."
The Chinese envoy also urged Iraq to be more cooperative with the UN inspectors, and abide by relevant UN resolutions, especially resolution 1441. He noted that there are questions to be answered and doubts to be cleared as indicated by the report of the two chief inspectors.
German ambassador Gunter Pleuger confirmed that the weapons inspectors would give another update on Feb. 14. He said the two chief inspectors-Hans Blix and Mohammed ElBaradei agreed that it would be "useful" to have one more update before a scheduled briefing on March 27.
He reiterated it is the council's common goal to fully disarm Iraq and do it peacefully.
On the other hand, the United States and Britain, the two advocates for military actions against Iraq dismissed the report as achieving little to prove Iraq has complied with UN resolutions and warned against inaction against Baghdad.
US ambassador John Negroponte said he heard nothing in the report offering hope that Iraq will disarm voluntarily and removing the need for the United States to take military action.
He argued that the issue was no longer the inspection process, and urged the 15-nation council to "face its responsibility" in the days ahead to decide on the next steps to disarm Iraq.
"The purpose of this exercise is not inspections but the disarmament of Iraq. Our quarrel is with Iraq's behavior in this process," he said.
Britain's UN ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said the reports by the two chief inspectors had "left a catalogue of unresolved questions."
But he said Britain shared with Germany the view that a new report is needed by weapons inspectors to the council on Feb. 14 and Britain would like to hear from the new report more details on the inspection work. This seemed at odds with the American stance that time has run out for Iraq.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to meet with US President George W. Bush at Camp David on Jan. 31, with the Iraqi issue presumably high on the agenda.
Iraqi ambassador to the UN Mohammed al-Douri said his country has done everything it could to aid in the search for banned arms programs, and that the war planned by the United States and Britain against Iraq was motivated by oil rather than WMD.
"We opened all doors to Mr. Blix and his team. If there is something, he will find it," he told reporters.
(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2003)
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