Baghdad, Jan 19: Top UN officials, flying to Baghdad today for urgent talks, warned Iraq that it must cooperate fully with weapons inspections to avoid war.
United Nations chief inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed Elbaradei left Cyprus on what Elbaradei described as a "last-ditch effort" to persuade Iraq "to give us what we need" before the two report to the Security Council January 27 on their assessment of Iraq's claim that it has not banned weapons.
The possibility of war "very much depends on progress we make in the next few weeks," Elbaradei, head of the UN nuclear agency, said today before flying out of Cyprus.
"We need to show progress because the international community is getting very much impatient," he said. "We need to bring closure to the Iraqi file on Weapons of Mass Destruction."
Blix, said war was not inevitable, but the alternative
is "inspections that are effective, that are credible and
which require active cooperation by Iraq."
The United States, which does not believe Iraq's assertion that it no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, is moving ships, planes and tens of thousands of troops to the Gulf to reinforce its warning that it will disarm Iraq if President Saddam Hussein's regime does not give up its weapons
voluntarily.
Anti-war sentiment is strong among America's European allies who have been urging the bush administration to give the inspectors more time to complete their work and avoid an
imminent war.
Bureau Report
