Powell Says Iraq Totally Fails to Meet UN Resolution Requirements

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Powell Says Iraq Totally Fails to Meet UN Resolution Requirements

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday said Iraq totally fails to meet the requirements of the UN resolution adopted last month on its disarmament.

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US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday said Iraq totally fails to meet the requirements of the UN resolution adopted last month on its disarmament.

In what was billed as "official US response" to an Iraqi document submitted to the UN Security Council on Dec. 7, Powell told a press conference at the US State Department that "there are material omissions that in our view constitute another material breach" of UN resolutions by Baghdad.

The secretary said the 12,000-page Iraqi declaration about its alleged weapons of mass destruction programs is only "a catalogue of recycled information and flagrant omissions."

Powell's assessment echoed an earlier statement made by John Negroponte, US ambassador to the United Nations, who said in New York that the Iraqi document, with "omissions, evasions and untruths," is "another material breach" of UN resolutions.

US rejection of Iraq declaration not immediate trigger for war

Powell said that the US rejection of Iraq's declaration about its weapons of mass destruction programs is not "an immediate trigger" for war.

But Powell noted that "the world will not wait forever."

At a press conference held at the State Department, the secretary said the document "totally fails" to meet the requirements of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraqi disarmament and there are material omissions in it which constitute "another material breach" of UN resolutions.

"Our experts have found it to be anything but accurate, full orcomplete," he said.

"This is a new breach (of UN resolutions)," he said, describingthe Iraqi document submitted on Dec. 7 as "a catalogue of recycledi nformation and flagrant omissions."

Powell's assessment echoed an earlier statement made by John Negroponte, US ambassador to the United Nations, who said in New York that the Iraqi document, with "omissions, evasions and untruths," is "another material breach" of UN resolutions.

Hans Blix, chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, reported to the Security Council earlier on Thursday that the world cannot be sure that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction on the basis of Baghdad's report.

But he said the United Nations will continue to review the Iraqi dossier as inspections proceed in Iraq.

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