Iraq Still Has Nuclear Weapons Expertise, Blix Says

Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has said that postwar Iraq still possesses the technical expertise needed to relaunch a nuclear weapons program, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 28).

In an epilogue to the new paperback version of his book Disarming Iraq, Blix wrote that there are hundreds of Iraqi scientists and technicians with expertise retained from their work in Iraq’s pre-1991 weapons program. That, combined with concerns over Iran’s nuclear efforts, “should trigger a more active discussion of the idea of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, including Israel and Iran,” he wrote.

Blix also said that now is not the time to shut down the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, which conducted inspections in Iraq, AP reported (see GSN, Feb. 28; Charles Hanley, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 4).

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