Iraq Could Revive Nuclear, Chemical Arms Effort, U.N. Says

Despite a two-year international campaign to destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, President Saddam Hussein’s regime remains capable of reviving its nuclear and chemical weapons programs, the U.N. official in charge of post-Persian Gulf War sanctions said Wednesday.

Rolf Ekeus, chief of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq, said it is essential for the Security Council to maintain the economic embargo against Baghdad, especially the ban on sales of Iraqi oil.

“The capabilities are there; the supply system, including banks and payments, is there,” Ekeus said. “The day the oil embargo is lifted, Iraq will get all the cash. . . . With the cash, the suppliers and the skills, they will be able to re-establish all the weapons programs. It may grow up like mushrooms after the rain.”

Ekeus said his commission has destroyed Iraq’s large nuclear weapons design facilities, although he admitted it may have missed some clandestine laboratories. But, he said, Iraq maintains a cadre of scientists and engineers who could restore the program in time.

He also said Iraq can maintain at least part of its prewar network of foreign suppliers because its government has refused to identify firms that sold it nuclear technology and equipment.

Speaking to a lunch meeting arranged by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Ekeus said the U.N. commission has destroyed 150,000 chemical weapons--including artillery shells and warheads for Scud missiles--as well as large amounts of bulk chemicals. But the chemical weapons programs also could be restored, he said, if the world community lets down its guard.