Blair Says WMD may Never be Found in Iraq, Unrest in British-Run South

11/01/2004| IslamWeb

British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq as unrest continued in the British-run southern part of the country. "In a land mass twice the size of the UK it may well not be surprising you don't find where this stuff is hidden", Blair told BBC television. "You can't be definitive at the moment about what has happened." Asked if he had been wrong in highlighting the threat of weapons of mass destruction, whose pursuit by Saddam was cited as a main justification for the US-led war launched last March, Blair replied: "You can't say that at this point in time. "What you can say is that we received that intelligence about Saddam's programs and about his weapons, that we acted on that. "But I don't know is the answer." A poll published on Sunday showed that half of British voters believe Blair lied over the outing of David Kelly, the ministry of defense expert on Iraqi weapons who killed himself last year. The poll was released as Blair awaits publication of a report by senior judge Brian Hutton after he oversaw an inquiry late last year into Kelly's death. Blair indicated to parliament last Wednesday that he would quit if it was proven that he lied over Kelly. Kelly, 59, was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18 not long after he was exposed as being behind allegations that the prime minister's office "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction to rally support for the war. Half of Britons agreed with the statement that Blair lied in saying he did not authorize the leaking of Kelly's name, according to the online YouGov poll published in The Mail on Sunday newspaper. On a more positive note for Blair, a top US commander has said possible blister agents were found in mortar shells buried in the Iraqi south, in what could be the first chemical weapons discovered since coalition forces invaded the country. The US military said tests were being carried out to determine whether a mysterious substance leaking from a cache of mortar shells uncovered by Danish troops is a chemical agent such as a blister gas. In British-controlled Amara in southern Iraq, dozens of demonstrators pelted British soldiers with rocks Sunday, a day after clashes left six dead when British troops and Iraqi police opened fire on armed men hidden in a protest by 500 unemployed men. British soldiers guarding Amara city hall charged the stone-throwing demonstrators who then fled, an AFP correspondent said. No one was wounded. In Basra, the main city in southern Iraq, an Iraqi with US residency and working for the US-led coalition was shot dead on Saturday, along with a friend, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) said in a statement Sunday. Japanese defense chief Shigeru Ishiba meanwhile left Tokyo for a trip to Britain, The Netherlands and France for talks on the reconstruction of Iraq, where Japan is planning to send troops. Ishiba will first meet Britain's Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon in London to discuss cooperation in Iraq, defense agency officials said. He will travel to The Netherlands on Wednesday to meet Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp and ask him for help in Iraq. Japanese troops are to be deployed in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah, where Dutch forces are already operating. Ishiba will then fly to Paris to hold talks with French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. On Friday Ishiba ordered the dispatch of a third advance party of military personnel to Iraq to prepare for the deployment of a main contingent of ground troops. The Polish-led multinational division in Iraq changed commanders Sunday in a ceremony in Babylon during which the military leaders hailed their successes in rebuilding the war-shattered country. General Mieczyslaw Bieniek took the command from another Polish general, Andrzej Tyszkiewicz. The Polish-led division deployed in south-central Iraq comprises soldiers from 23 countries. On the internal political front, the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council unveiled guidelines banning senior members of the ousted Baath party from public sector jobs and said it would soon announce measures to root out senior Baathists from the private sector and trade associations. Like the May decree issued by US overseer Paul Bremer, the guidelines reiterate that full members of the Baath party holding the ranks of regional command member, branch member, section member and group member will be dismissed from their positions in the public sector. It also bans any full Baath party members from the three top posts at ministries or government institutions. The only major difference between the guidelines and the May decree is the widening of the category of those eligible to appeal their dismissal to include fourth-level members. Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meanwhile rejected a fresh entreaty by the Governing Council to endorse US plans to set up a provisional government without elections. "The ayatollah invoked his position that the planned transitional national assembly cannot represent the Iraqis in the ideal manner," Sistani said in a statement released by his office in the holy city of Najaf, after his latest meeting with a council delegation. "In this situation, experts think it is possible to organize fair and transparent elections in the coming months," the text said, restating Sistani's position. **PHOTO CAPTION*** British troops face protesters in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah Sunday Jan. 11, 2004. (AP Photo/Nabil Aljurani)