New team in Baghdad for nuclear search

IRAQ: An International Atomic Energy Authority inspection team arrived in Baghdad yesterday to begin assessing a nuclear power…

IRAQ: An International Atomic Energy Authority inspection team arrived in Baghdad yesterday to begin assessing a nuclear power station on the outskirts of the city, the first such team under UN auspices to visit the country since weapons inspectors left shortly before the war.

They will work to secure the Tuwaitha nuclear complex that was badly hit by looters in the aftermath of liberation when large quantities of uranium ore were stolen, raising concerns of the possible exposure of looters to radiological materials.

Under their current mandate, however, the scope of the IAEA team has been severely limited to a fortnight's work during which time the team of seven inspectors will be supervised by US forces.

Washington has made it clear that the powers enjoyed by IAEA working in tandem with Hans Blix's UN weapons inspectors to launch spot checks on facilities up and down the country for weapons of mass destruction will not be returned.

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At a low key arrival in Baghdad, one IAEA inspector said, "We won't be enjoying a very long stay although we would like to".

The IAEA had offered to restart its investigation into whether Iraq had the capacity to build a "dirty" nuclear bomb and to increase their numbers to the hundreds who visited the country before the war but was told their services were "not required".

Melissa Fleming, spokesman for the IAEA said: "We have offered to help but have been turned down and now we await the outcome of talks at the United Nations Security Council. I think everyone understands the need for impartiality in the inspection process in Iraq."

For more than a decade, the IAEA monitored nearly two tons of uranium and radioactive materials tagged at the defunct Tuwaitha facility.

Under the 1972 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, signatory countries are required to open up their facilities to inspection.

A senior American official at the Coalition Provisional Authority said: "The IAEA and weapons inspectors had their chance to find evidence that Saddam had programmes for WMDs. This is our show now and we intend to find them."

Such sentiments reflect American distrust for the weapons inspection process that threatened to bog down the war effort in diplomacy and a growing sense of frustration with the lack of evidence so far of the existence of WMDs, the causus belli for the invasion.

The only finds to date have been two disused trailers that were claimed by the White House to be mobile arms units, although their function has yet to be determined.

A new American-led inspection team has been announced with orders to speed up the search process, with an advance party arriving in Baghdad on Thursday.

The Iraq Survey Group, eventually comprising a mixed nationality force of 1,400 members, will supplement the work of the 75th expedition task force, a military unit that has been criticized for its lack of efficiency in assessing sites.

US ground forces commander Lieutenant General David McKiernan said: "It is a much more robust capability, which will be over here for as long as it takes."