NICOSIA Ñ U.S. combat jets attacked Iraqi anti-aircraft
installations three times over the last four days in southern Iraq as an international team was scheduled to arrive in Baghdad for what
U.S. officials termed a routine inspection of Iraq's nuclear facilities.
The United States has accused Iraq of interfering with IAEA monitoring. "I caution those who think they can pursue nuclear weapons without
detection by the IAEA Ñ the United States and its allies will prove you
wrong," U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told the Conference on
Disarmament in Geneva on Thursday.
The visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency comes amid fresh
reports that Iraq has accelerated development of nuclear weapons.
The IAEA team is not expected to break new ground in its inspection.
Western diplomatic sources said the team will return to the site of its last
inspection nearly two years ago, when an IAEA contingent checked the content
of
nuclear material.
An Iraqi defector, Adnan Ihsan Said Haideri, asserted that Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein has launched a crash program to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Haideri, a construction engineer, said Iraq's WMD program is mobile and
meant to evade international monitoring.
"Heavy work is beginning and concentrated works and they are working day
and night," Haideri told the CBS television network.
For their part, Iraqi officials stressed that the inspectors will not be
allowed to conduct surprise visits. The surprise inspections were contained
in United Nations resolutions that ended the Gulf war in 1991.
Baghdad has denied any secret nuclear or weapons of mass destruction
programs. But the government media have defended the right of Arab regimes
to obtain WMD.
The Iraqi Babel daily, owned by Saddam's son Uday, asserted on Wednesday
that Baghdad was ready to approve the return of United Nations inspectors
for a period of several months in return for a guarantee that sanctions will
be lifted. The newspaper said Iraq will ask the Arab League to support
Baghdad's proposal during the summit in Beirut in March.
