United Nations: Iraq has submitted a report to the United Nations chief weapons
inspector Hans Blix, claiming that Baghdad does not now possess VX nerve gas,
diplomats said.
The 25-page report titled "The Fate of VX and Chlorine in Soil" submitted to Blix on
March 14, is now being studied by the inspectors.
It only documents production and destruction of VX stocks, but does not give
information or documentation about anthrax that Iraq was also expected to give,
officials said.
Inspectors are asking Iraq to hand over its stocks of VX nerve agent and anthrax or
provide evidence to support its claim that it had unilaterally destroyed all stocks
in 1991.
The report, said officials, is half in English and half in Arabic. It is in response
to questions raised by Blix about lack of full accounting of its stocks of VX and
anthrax.
Iraq has been saying that it has lost some of the documentation on destruction of
these two deadly agents, but wants the inspectors to judge the amount destroyed from
the contamination of the areas where it was destroyed. But inspectors are not sure
that such a methods would enable them to determine the quantity destroyed.
UN estimates that Iraq had 21,000 litres of VX and 10,000 litres of anthrax at the
time the last Gulf war began.
Iraq has declared 8,445 litres of anthrax, but says VX never went beyond the
experimental stage.
PTI
