Baghdad Is Weighing Destruction of Missiles

Iraq is still considering whether to obey an order from chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix to begin destroying its arsenal of Al-Samoud 2 missiles in the next six days and is hoping to reopen talks to resolve the question, a key Iraqi military officer said Sunday.

Gen. Hussam Mohammed Amin, Iraq’s liaison with U.N. inspectors, repeated Baghdad’s assertion that the missiles, when loaded down with guidance systems, are incapable of exceeding the 93-mile range mandated by the U.N. Security Council and therefore should not be forbidden. He also suggested that destroying the missiles might be difficult when the country faces the threat of a U.S.-led war.

“We did not expect the committee to ask us to destroy these missiles,” Amin said at a news conference.

“These missiles represent one of our defensive capabilities,” he added, though he noted, “They are not our only one.”

The Al-Samoud 2 missiles have emerged as the next important test of Iraq’s willingness to fully comply with U.N. demands that it disarm. If Baghdad declines to destroy the missiles, it could bolster President Bush’s efforts to build international support for an attack on Iraq.

Amin said Iraq had received a letter from Blix instructing it to begin destroying the missiles by Saturday. Iraq, he said, was studying it “profoundly and in a serious and comprehensive way.”

Noting that Iraq is seeking an answer to an earlier letter to Blix offering to discuss “technical questions” surrounding the issue, Amin said he hoped Blix would consider the Iraqi point of view fairly.

“We hope that this issue will be resolved without interference from the Americans and the British,” he said. “I believe that we will be able to resolve this issue without any intervention by those with evil intentions.”

He suggested that Blix, in ordering the missiles destroyed, might have been influenced by the U.S.

“We hope he will resist the applied American pressure,” the general said.

Whether Blix is prepared to reenter negotiations about the missiles is unclear, since the order to destroy them came after three months of discussions with Iraq and an in-depth study by a panel of missile experts who concluded that the liquid-fuel rockets could exceed the 93-mile limit.

Asked if the demand to destroy the missiles was negotiable, Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the U.N. inspectors in Baghdad, said only: “Dr. Blix, in his letter, was very categorical.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sunday that he didn’t expect Baghdad to resist Blix’s order.

“If they refused to destroy the weapons, the Security Council will have to make a decision,” Annan told reporters in Turkey. “I don’t see why they would not destroy them.”

France, which has been leading efforts to give weapons inspectors more time to work in Iraq, also urged Baghdad to destroy the missiles.

“It is necessary for Iraq to act and meet its obligations, in this case the destruction of these prohibited missiles,” Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told Le Figaro newspaper in an interview that was released Sunday.

Amin stressed that Iraq was not signaling that it would defy the order.

“I am not hinting whether Iraq is going to agree or disagree,” he said. “I am saying that this subject is still under consideration and study.”

Iraq’s decision could affect the fate of a new U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq that the United States and Britain plan to introduce this week. Amin said no such resolution, presumably authorizing the use of force against Iraq, should be passed because Baghdad is cooperating with the inspections and is, he said, “clean” of weapons of mass destruction.

Blix’s order, issued Friday, called for the destruction of all Al-Samoud 2 missiles, warheads, fuel, engines and other components. Iraq is believed to have 100 to 120 of the missiles, according to U.N. sources.

Regarding another area of difficulty between Iraq and U.N. inspectors, Amin said Iraq is still encouraging scientists to appear for unmonitored interviews with weapons inspectors but does not consider it “needed” for the interviews to take place outside the country.

Amin said more scientists would go to the interviews on Iraq’s alleged chemical and biological weapons programs if the U.N. teams permitted the scientists to take tape recorders with them. However, inspectors believe that if the scientists bring recorders, Iraqi security agencies will listen to the tapes afterward -- making the privacy of the interviews moot.