Iraq Says to Respond to Missile Order with 48 Hours
Thu February 27, 2003 10:45 AM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq will respond to a United Nations order to destroy its al-Samoud missiles within the next two days to meet a deadline set by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, an Iraqi official said Thursday.

It was not immediately known what the response would be.

Iraq had said previously that it was "seriously and genuinely" studying the order Blix gave it last week to begin destroying, by Saturday, March 1, dozens of the missiles as well as their warheads, engines and launchers.

It is a key test of Iraq's willingness to comply with U.N. disarmament demands -- Blix says the missiles can fly further than the 93 miles the U.N. allows for Iraq's weaponry.

The Iraqi official, speaking on condition he was not named, said the reply would be in the form of a letter sent to the U.N. Security Council.

At the United Nations in New York, the U.N. weapons inspection agency said that it had no word yet from Baghdad.

"We have heard nothing from them so far," a spokesman for the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection agency told Reuters, responding to reports that Iraq had agreed to destroy the missiles.

General Amer al-Saadi, a senior adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, had hinted Monday that Iraq would agree to the demand, saying Baghdad had to be pragmatic about the issue.

Destruction of the al-Samoud 2 missiles would be a blow to Iraq as it prepares for a possible invasion by U.S. forces. In an interview with CBS television, Saddam denied that the al-Samoud's range was greater than the U.N.'s limit.

If he does not destroy them, however, the United States and Britain could use Iraq's defiance of Blix's order as proof that it is not cooperating with the United Nations and that war is therefore justified.

 

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