Iraq says ready to answer questions
( 2003-01-10 10:06 ) (7 )

A senior Iraqi official said on Thursday Iraq was ready to respond to questions over its arms declaration to the Security Council, adding that UN inspections had vindicated Baghdad's assertion that it has no banned arms.

"We are ready to respond to the questions which will be directed to us and we think that the majority or all of the questions could be resolved during the monitoring phase, during the technical discussions that could be taken between both sides," General Hussam Mohammed Amin told a news conference.

"The fact that Iraq's declarations are credible is confirmed firmly daily. That declaration...proved that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction," Amin said.

Blix said his arms teams had not found "any smoking guns" in Iraq so far during their search for banned weapons, but would conduct interviews with scientists and others within a week or so to get more information. He said Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration, submitted on December 7, had failed to answer "a great many questions".

Amin said a report on the Time magazine website that inspectors would within a week start taking Iraqi scientists for questioning in Cyprus was an unofficial idea.

"It was an idea. There is nothing official presented to us. It was an oral requast by an inspectors," he said.

Amin reiterated Iraq's position that it was not necessary to question scientists on banned weapons outside the country.

"I think nobody is ready to go outside to make an interview" with the inspectors, he said.

Amin said Iraq would protest in next week's talks with Blix who is visiting Baghdad about the kind of questions asked by the inspectors.

He said the inspectors were asking questions that had nothing to do with armament, but had a rather intelligence nature.