Скачать или смотреть UN: CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR BUTLER PRESS CONFERENCE ON IRAQ

(28 Jan 1998) English/Nat

Chief U-N weapons Inspector Richard Butler told Jewish American leaders in New York that Iraq may "have dug in too deeply" in the crisis over its weapons programme.

However, he added that there was still hope for a diplomatic solution to the problem.

Butler was speaking on Tuesday at a gathering of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations, an umbrella group of 55 national organisations.

The chief U-N weapons inspector faced questions from the gathering of Jewish American leaders on the question of Iraq and its current relationship with the United Nations.

Richard Butler told the assembled guests that Iraq had repeatedly failed to give U-N inspectors information on its missile, biological and chemical weapons programmes.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We have some evidence of some of the substances having been put in missile warheads, possibly in R-400 bomb, but we, and maybe in drop tanks or spray tanks, we've never had an adequate accounting for the substances they made, the quantities in which they made them, and where they then put them."
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Butler, Chief U-N Weapons Inspector

Butler was quoted in the New York Times on Tuesday as saying he believed that Baghdad had enough biological material to "blow away Tel Aviv".

And he reiterated his words by telling the American Jewish leaders that Iraq could have that capability.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Iraq has argued with us and said alternatively we never did this, where we know they did; or these substances wouldn't be viable anymore because we made them so long ago, we know that to be not true. But we do continue to have evidence that leads us to suspect that Iraq maintains the capability to make biological weapons agent."
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Butler, Chief U-N Weapons Inspector

Iraq has admitted it had facilities to mass-manufacture anthrax, aflatoxin and botulinum and had loaded them into more than 150 bombs and missiles.

UNSCOM admits that there has been some progress in tracking down and destroying other sectors of President Saddam Hussein's programmes to build weapons of mass destruction, but it has been constantly obstructed in the search for biological weapons.

U-S officials say that time is running out for a diplomatic end to the Iraq crisis and Washington believes it is authorised by past U-N resolutions to make a unilateral strike on Iraq if necessary.

However, Butler appears to maintain hope that diplomacy could still work.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I don't think it's beyond diplomacy to bring home to them in the next few weeks that they've dug in too deeply on a policy that people will not believe, unless they're prepared to help us believe it by going to visit places and get the information we need. I wouldn't write diplomacy off yet, Richard, but if what you're saying is that we're at a pretty critical time, yeah, I think that's right. I think you'd have to be fairly blind and a bit mute not to hear the signals that are flying around."
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Butler, Chief U-N Weapons Inspector

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that Defence Secretary William Cohen was considering a visit to the Gulf in early February to discuss possible military actions against Iraq with U-S allies in the region.

And U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is planning to travel to Europe later this week to discuss Iraq with the Russians, British and French.

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