WASHINGTON - The United States declared Iraq yesterday to be in "material breach" of the United Nations resolution requiring Baghdad to divulge its weapons programs, a violation that it said moved Iraq "closer to the day" when it might face military attack.
U.S. officials said Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration, delivered Dec. 7, was filled with omissions, evasions and lies, reviving Baghdad's pattern of "deception and concealment."
"These are material omissions," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, "that in our view constitute another material breach."
The term "material breach" is understood in the U.N. Security Council as the legal grounds to wage war.
Powell said there is no "calendar deadline" for invading Iraq. But he said there is "a practical limit to how much longer you can go down the road of non-cooperation."
"Iraq is well on its way to losing this last chance," he said.
Powell spoke after the two chief U.N. inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, told the Security Council that Iraq's weapons declaration contained key omissions and apparently false information, and failed to allay suspicions about continuing weapons development.
They also said it failed to answer key questions about Iraq's weapons programs.
Under the U.N. Security Council resolution adopted Nov. 8, Iraq was required to make a "currently accurate, full and complete declaration."
The Bush administration had withheld extensive comment on the Iraqi declaration until Blix and ElBaradei delivered their judgment. The U.S. broadside against Iraq yesterday was based on its own assessment of the Iraqi declaration.
Stepping up pressure on Iraq, the Security Council called for more frequent briefings from the U.N. weapons inspectors on how much cooperation they were receiving from Iraq. The next Security Council briefing, originally set for Jan. 27, will occur early next month.
Any new sign of deceit or obstruction would be mentioned by the United States as a further violation of U.N. mandates and additional grounds for a war that American officials have said would result in the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"A body of evidence is slowly building," Powell said. "And that body of evidence shows that Iraq is not cooperating."
Noting that the United Nations had warned Iraq that it faced "serious consequences" if it failed to disarm, he said, "Iraq's noncompliance and defiance at the international community has brought it closer to the day when it will have to face these consequences."
Pressing U.N. agencies to conduct more intrusive inspections on the ground and arrange to interview Iraqi scientists outside Iraq, Powell said the United States would supply inspection teams with more precise intelligence on suspected weapons sites and names of people to interview.
Presenting facts
A State Department fact sheet said the Iraqi document not only fails to account for what is known about its weapons programs but also denies what Iraq had previously admitted.
In 1995, the fact sheet said, Iraq admitted that a remote-piloted vehicle was intended to carry a system for spraying biological weapons. Yet the new document denies a connection between Iraq's unmanned aerial vehicles and biological warfare. The State Department said Iraq is also hiding its efforts to obtain uranium, which can be processed into fuel for nuclear weapons.
The fact sheet also said Iraq gives an inadequate accounting of chemical arms, including possibly thousands of tons of chemical-weapons precursors, offers no response to past demands for information about production of the nerve agent VX, lies about the range of missiles it is producing, and fails to account for thousands of gallons of the suspected germ-warfare agents anthrax and botulinum toxin.
"Most brazenly of all," Powell said, "the Iraqi declaration denies the existence of any prohibited weapons programs at all."
Blix, who is head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and is in charge of finding Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles, told the Security Council that he had information "that would appear to contradict Iraq's account." He did not detail more than that Iraq appeared to have given false information about its destruction of anthrax.
ElBaradei, who as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency leads the search for nuclear weapons, said his inspectors need to investigate Iraq's claim that it has done nothing to restart its nuclear-weapons program. He also said Iraq must provide answers and evidence about its purchase of aluminum tubes that can be used to produce nuclear-weapons fuel.
Within the 15-member Security Council, only the United States declared Iraq in "material breach," exposing anew the gap between the United States and other countries over how harshly to treat Iraq. All other members, including Britain, America's closest ally, say that a false weapons declaration is not enough for such a step, and that it must be matched with deliberate Iraqi attempts to obstruct the inspectors.
Iraq denies accusations
Iraq's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Salmane, rejected the U.S. accusations as "baseless."
"Iraq is not in a material breach," Salmane said. "The U.S. made it clear that the matter is not disarmament, but to change the legitimate government of Iraq."
A U.N. resolution adopted Nov. 8 says that if there is such a violation, the Security Council should consider "serious consequences" for Iraq - widely understood to mean an attack. The Bush administration says it has the option of going to war without explicit U.N. approval if the council fails to act.
A U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf region is gaining speed in preparation for a possible war, amid reports that more than 100,000 U.S. troops could be in the region by February.
In Britain, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Hussein had his "finger on the trigger" of war but said the Iraqi declaration "does not, of itself, trigger military action."
From now on, Iraq would have to show "100 percent pro-active cooperation with the inspectors," on substance as well as access, said Britain's U.N. envoy, Jeremy Greenstock.
In France, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said if Iraq ignored its commitments to disarm, "the Security Council, on the basis of the report of Mr. Blix, should be called together to examine the array of options, including the use of force."
He also indicated that France would fight alongside the United States if a war were sanctioned by the U.N., saying, "If the international community decided to act, obviously France would uphold its commitments."
The Russian envoy to the United Nations, Sergei Lavrov, said "we never saw any evidence" that Iraq is continuing to develop prohibited weapons.
U.S. officials said Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration, delivered Dec. 7, was filled with omissions, evasions and lies, reviving Baghdad's pattern of "deception and concealment."
"These are material omissions," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, "that in our view constitute another material breach."
The term "material breach" is understood in the U.N. Security Council as the legal grounds to wage war.
Powell said there is no "calendar deadline" for invading Iraq. But he said there is "a practical limit to how much longer you can go down the road of non-cooperation."
"Iraq is well on its way to losing this last chance," he said.
Powell spoke after the two chief U.N. inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, told the Security Council that Iraq's weapons declaration contained key omissions and apparently false information, and failed to allay suspicions about continuing weapons development.
They also said it failed to answer key questions about Iraq's weapons programs.
Under the U.N. Security Council resolution adopted Nov. 8, Iraq was required to make a "currently accurate, full and complete declaration."
The Bush administration had withheld extensive comment on the Iraqi declaration until Blix and ElBaradei delivered their judgment. The U.S. broadside against Iraq yesterday was based on its own assessment of the Iraqi declaration.
Stepping up pressure on Iraq, the Security Council called for more frequent briefings from the U.N. weapons inspectors on how much cooperation they were receiving from Iraq. The next Security Council briefing, originally set for Jan. 27, will occur early next month.
Any new sign of deceit or obstruction would be mentioned by the United States as a further violation of U.N. mandates and additional grounds for a war that American officials have said would result in the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"A body of evidence is slowly building," Powell said. "And that body of evidence shows that Iraq is not cooperating."
Noting that the United Nations had warned Iraq that it faced "serious consequences" if it failed to disarm, he said, "Iraq's noncompliance and defiance at the international community has brought it closer to the day when it will have to face these consequences."
Pressing U.N. agencies to conduct more intrusive inspections on the ground and arrange to interview Iraqi scientists outside Iraq, Powell said the United States would supply inspection teams with more precise intelligence on suspected weapons sites and names of people to interview.
In 1995, the fact sheet said, Iraq admitted that a remote-piloted vehicle was intended to carry a system for spraying biological weapons. Yet the new document denies a connection between Iraq's unmanned aerial vehicles and biological warfare. The State Department said Iraq is also hiding its efforts to obtain uranium, which can be processed into fuel for nuclear weapons.
The fact sheet also said Iraq gives an inadequate accounting of chemical arms, including possibly thousands of tons of chemical-weapons precursors, offers no response to past demands for information about production of the nerve agent VX, lies about the range of missiles it is producing, and fails to account for thousands of gallons of the suspected germ-warfare agents anthrax and botulinum toxin.
"Most brazenly of all," Powell said, "the Iraqi declaration denies the existence of any prohibited weapons programs at all."
Blix, who is head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and is in charge of finding Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles, told the Security Council that he had information "that would appear to contradict Iraq's account." He did not detail more than that Iraq appeared to have given false information about its destruction of anthrax.
ElBaradei, who as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency leads the search for nuclear weapons, said his inspectors need to investigate Iraq's claim that it has done nothing to restart its nuclear-weapons program. He also said Iraq must provide answers and evidence about its purchase of aluminum tubes that can be used to produce nuclear-weapons fuel.
Within the 15-member Security Council, only the United States declared Iraq in "material breach," exposing anew the gap between the United States and other countries over how harshly to treat Iraq. All other members, including Britain, America's closest ally, say that a false weapons declaration is not enough for such a step, and that it must be matched with deliberate Iraqi attempts to obstruct the inspectors.
"Iraq is not in a material breach," Salmane said. "The U.S. made it clear that the matter is not disarmament, but to change the legitimate government of Iraq."
A U.N. resolution adopted Nov. 8 says that if there is such a violation, the Security Council should consider "serious consequences" for Iraq - widely understood to mean an attack. The Bush administration says it has the option of going to war without explicit U.N. approval if the council fails to act.
A U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf region is gaining speed in preparation for a possible war, amid reports that more than 100,000 U.S. troops could be in the region by February.
In Britain, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Hussein had his "finger on the trigger" of war but said the Iraqi declaration "does not, of itself, trigger military action."
From now on, Iraq would have to show "100 percent pro-active cooperation with the inspectors," on substance as well as access, said Britain's U.N. envoy, Jeremy Greenstock.
In France, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said if Iraq ignored its commitments to disarm, "the Security Council, on the basis of the report of Mr. Blix, should be called together to examine the array of options, including the use of force."
He also indicated that France would fight alongside the United States if a war were sanctioned by the U.N., saying, "If the international community decided to act, obviously France would uphold its commitments."
The Russian envoy to the United Nations, Sergei Lavrov, said "we never saw any evidence" that Iraq is continuing to develop prohibited weapons.