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03/10/2003
Straw claims WMD report backs case for Iraq war
The Foreign Secretary has claimed that the report into Iraq's weapons programme provides "conclusive and incontrovertible evidence" that Iraq had breached UN resolutions.
Jack Straw said that the US-backed Iraq Survey Group's (ISG) report provided further evidence that Iraq had breached the terms of UN resolution 1441 – which was the trigger for the land war.
However, no evidence has been uncovered that suggests Saddam Hussein had succeeded in producing operational WMDs – and so confounding the British government's claims that Iraq represented a clear and present danger to British interests.
Mr Straw said: "[Project leader David] Kay's report confirms how dangerous and deceitful the regime was, and how the military action was indeed both justified and essential to remove the dangers.
The ISG report revealed, said Mr Straw, "dozens of WMD-related programme activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002".
The Foreign Secretary pointed to report's conclusions, which found: a clandestine network of laboratories within the Iraqi intelligence service suitable for chemical and biological weapons research; strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist's home, one of which could be used to produce biological weapons; new research on BW applicable agents; advanced design work for long range missiles well outside UN limits and clandestine attempts to obtain technology and missiles from North Korea.
The report also details how one scientist "hid a vial containing botulinum" and subsequently identified a large cache of biological agents he refused to conceal.
The Iraq Survey Group report is an interim report, produced in three-months in difficult circumstances. The report states that it is too early to reach conclusions, but the government has said that it contains enough information for "any objective judgement lead to the conclusion that the Saddam regime was employed in a wide-range of illegal activities in contravention of categorical UN obligations".
(gmcg)
Jack Straw said that the US-backed Iraq Survey Group's (ISG) report provided further evidence that Iraq had breached the terms of UN resolution 1441 – which was the trigger for the land war.
However, no evidence has been uncovered that suggests Saddam Hussein had succeeded in producing operational WMDs – and so confounding the British government's claims that Iraq represented a clear and present danger to British interests.
Mr Straw said: "[Project leader David] Kay's report confirms how dangerous and deceitful the regime was, and how the military action was indeed both justified and essential to remove the dangers.
The ISG report revealed, said Mr Straw, "dozens of WMD-related programme activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002".
The Foreign Secretary pointed to report's conclusions, which found: a clandestine network of laboratories within the Iraqi intelligence service suitable for chemical and biological weapons research; strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist's home, one of which could be used to produce biological weapons; new research on BW applicable agents; advanced design work for long range missiles well outside UN limits and clandestine attempts to obtain technology and missiles from North Korea.
The report also details how one scientist "hid a vial containing botulinum" and subsequently identified a large cache of biological agents he refused to conceal.
The Iraq Survey Group report is an interim report, produced in three-months in difficult circumstances. The report states that it is too early to reach conclusions, but the government has said that it contains enough information for "any objective judgement lead to the conclusion that the Saddam regime was employed in a wide-range of illegal activities in contravention of categorical UN obligations".
(gmcg)
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UN inspection teams could yet play a key role in searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix says that UN inspectors could assist coalition forces to search for weapons in Iraq. Mr Blix told the BBC that although no weapons had been found it was "too early" to rule out their existence.
Pressure grows for UN inspection role in Iraq
UN inspection teams could yet play a key role in searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix says that UN inspectors could assist coalition forces to search for weapons in Iraq. Mr Blix told the BBC that although no weapons had been found it was "too early" to rule out their existence.
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