BAGHDAD (REUTERS) — U.N. arms inspectors arrived in Baghdad Monday to search for alleged weapons of mass destruction, a mission that could trigger a U.S.-led war against Iraq.
As chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and his advance team of about 30 experts flew into Baghdad to resume U.N. monitoring work in the country after a four-year absence, Iraq vowed to defend “every inch” of its land if attacked.
It lashed out at Washington as U.S. and British warplanes again raided Iraqi air defenses, rejecting U.S. charges that it had violated a new U.N. resolution by continually trying to shoot down planes patrolling “no-fly” zones.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was “unacceptable” for Iraq to shoot at U.S. and British aircraft patrolling the “no-fly” zones, but stopped short of saying it might trigger war.
Blix, who arrived from Cyprus with Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, met General Amir al-Saadi, an adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, at the Foreign Ministry.
Blix did not comment on the meeting, telling reporters only that the talks would resume Tuesday.
Earlier he told reporters: “We have come here for one single reason and that is because the world wants to have assurances that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
“The situation is tense at the moment, but there is a new opportunity and we are here to provide inspection which is credible,” the 74-year-old Swede said.
Referring to U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq because of its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Blix said: “We hope that opportunity will be well utilized so that we can get out of sanctions.”
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Saddam to give “prompt and unfettered access” to sites suspected of having nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Iraq has denied possessing weapons of mass destruction.
“I urge President Saddam Hussein to comply fully for the sake of his people, for the sake of the region and for the sake of the whole world,” Annan told a news conference in Sarajevo.
President Bush has repeatedly urged “regime change” in Iraq, meaning Saddam’s overthrow, and has vowed to wage war if necessary if Baghdad fails to disarm.
Oil prices jumped Monday as the threat of a new wave of attacks by Muslim militants added to fears of an Iraqi war, highlighting the West’s reliance on Middle Eastern oil, dealers and analysts said.
Iraq was the eighth biggest oil exporter last year, and traders fear any attack on the Arab country could spread across the Gulf region, which pumps about a quarter of world oil.
The members of Blix’s U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission arrived aboard a privately chartered C-130 aircraft carrying the U.N. insignia. Blix was greeted by Husam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, which liaises with U.N. arms inspectors.
Formal inspections are not due to start until November 27. Under the U.N. Security Council resolution adopted on November 8, the first big test is a December 8 deadline for Iraq to submit a full account of all banned weapons programs.
By January 27 next year, the inspectors must have given their first report to the U.N. Security Council.
In Monday’s skirmish, U.S. commanders said U.S. and British aircraft retaliated after being threatened as they patrolled a northern “no-fly” zone over Iraq. Analysts say such clashes could ignite full-scale conflict.
The so-called “no-fly” zones were set up after the 1991 Gulf War that drove Iraqi invasion forces out of Kuwait.
The official Iraqi News Agency INA quoted an Iraqi military spokesman as saying U.S. and British warplanes had attacked “civilian” targets in Nineveh province, 247 miles north of Baghdad. There were no reports of casualties.
“I do find it unacceptable that Iraq fires,” Rumsfeld told a news conference in Chile’s capital Santiago, but added: “It is for the president of the United States and the U.N. Security Council to make judgments about their view of Iraq’s behavior over a period of time.”
In Baghdad, Iraq said that allegations of a violation after more than 10 years of such tit-for-tat exchanges in the zones showed Washington was using the text of this month’s U.N. resolution to justify aggression.
“This U.S. declaration is an additional expression of American intentions to use (U.N.) resolution 1441 as a cover to justify its aggressive actions against Iraq,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted by INA as saying.
Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq’s highest authority, the Revolutionary Command Council, vowed Monday that Iraqis would fight back if attacked.
“We will fight them on every inch of Iraq’s soil and every Iraqi will fight them,” he was quoted by INA as saying.
Iraq’s press said Monday Baghdad would cooperate fully with the inspectors, but it urged them to be neutral and honest.
“We want these teams to prove to the Americans that our country is free from weapons of mass destruction,” said a newspaper owned by Saddam’s son Uday.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in Brussels before a European Union ministerial meeting: “The ball is in Saddam Hussein’s court. It is up to him now whether he is disarmed peacefully or by other means.”
In 1998, the United Nations lost patience with what it saw as Saddam’s lack of cooperation and pulled its inspectors out.
IAEA chief ElBaradei has said the inspectors possess a good “game plan,” having some knowledge of suspect sites because of tips from U.S. and other intelligence agencies as well as their own advance investigations.
Blix says nothing will be off-limits and inspections could include mosques and Saddam’s palaces.
