Hans Blix
Hans Blix
Hans Martin Blix; born 28 June 1928) is a Swedish diplomat and politician for the Liberal People's Party. He was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairsand later became the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. As such, Blix was the first Western representative to inspect the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union on site, and led the agency response to them. Blix was also the head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission from March...
NationalitySwedish
ProfessionDiplomat
Date of Birth28 June 1928
CountrySweden
It seems to me that they could do things which would change the situation, ... The principal issue is weapons of mass destruction.
I told the council that we hope we will have been through the main part of the document -- which is about 3,000 pages -- by Friday.
They said they had been surprised themselves ... They were in boxes, never opened -- there were bird droppings on them. But of course they should have been declared and destroyed.
We know exactly who is going to be there, and the advance team that I am going to lead,
would seem to have only limited practical relevance in the current situation.
Inspection is not a game of catch as catch can. Regrettably, the 12,000-page declaration, most of which is a reprint of earlier documents, does not seem to contain any new evidence that will eliminate the questions.
I hope I have seen ... a beginning of taking these remaining disarmament issues more seriously,
In the Middle Ages when people were convinced there were witches they certainly found them. This is a bit risky,
If there are any obstructions or problems, we will report them,
In the course of these inspections, we have not found any smoking gun.
We would like to have clues as to where the United States' and other countries' intelligence feel they know Iraqis are storing weapons of mass destruction, ... Then, we can send in the inspectors.
We would expect them to accept what we have said and to destroy the missiles as we have stated, ... They are to start the destruction by March 1 and we will discuss with them the pace and order.
The patience that they require for themselves now was not anything that they wanted to give to us,
If the Iraqis were to use any chemical weapons, then I think the public opinion around the world would immediately turn against Iraq, and they would say, as well, that the invasion was justified.