Former UN weapons inspector Blix to face Iraq questions

The man who led UN weapons inspectors in Iraq before the 2003 invasion is set to appear before the war inquiry.

Hans Blix was a key figure in the months before the war as his team sought to determine the extent of Saddam Hussein's weapons programme.

He is likely to be asked whether war could have been prevented if his inspectors had been given more time.

He has subsequently accused the UK and US of "over-interpreting" intelligence on weapons to bolster the case for war.

Critics of the war believe that had inspectors been allowed to continue their work they would have proved beyond doubt that Iraq did not have active weapons of mass destruction capability - as was discovered after the invasion.

But the US and UK have always maintained that Saddam Hussein failed to co-operate fully with the inspections process and was continuing to breach UN disarmament resolutions dating back to 1991.

The inquiry, headed by Sir John Chilcot, is coming towards the end of its public hearings, with a report expected to be published around the end of the year.

Dr Blix, who was head of the UN's Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) since its inception in 1999, is the first foreign national to give evidence in person to the inquiry.

His inspectors entered Iraq in late 2002 after UN resolution 1441 demanded that Saddam Hussein provide an "accurate, full and complete declaration" of all aspects of his WMD programmes, ballistic missiles and other weapons delivery systems.

The resolution stated that the inspectors should be given "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access" to all facilities, equipment and records and warned of "serious consequences" if Iraq continued to violate existing obligations.

Briefing the UN Security Council in January 2003, Dr Blix said Iraq had co-operated "rather well" on granting access but similar co-operation was still needed on the substance of its weapons declarations.

Noting that inspectors had yet to find any "smoking guns", he said the question of how much illicit weapons material still remained unanswered.

After France and Russia refused to back a further resolution explicitly authorising military action in the event of non-compliance, calling instead for the inspectors to be given more time, the invasion was launched on 20 March.

Reporting to the UN on the eve of the invasion, Dr Blix said he "naturally felt sadness" that "that no more time is available for our inspections and that armed action now seems imminent".

Although his inspectors had received new details from the regime in the preceding weeks, he said "in substance only limited new information has been provided that will help to resolve remaining questions".

BBC's world affairs correspondent Peter Biles said Dr Blix ultimately had to abandon his work days before the invasion, unable to say with certainty whether Iraq had chemical or biological weapons capability.

Since the conflict, our correspondent said Dr Blix had accused the US and UK of over-exaggerating the risk posed by Iraq and stressed he would have preferred to have follow the "peaceful path" and continued his work.

In his evidence in January, former foreign secretary Jack Straw said the regime had only started complying in the final period before the invasion "because a very large military force was at their gates"

The Iraq inquiry was accused on Monday of been "too easygoing" in grilling witnesses about the lead-up to the war.

Carne Ross, a former UK diplomat to the UN, told the BBC that Sir John Chilcot was running a "narrow" investigation, with the standard of questioning "pretty low".

Sir John has promised an "open, thorough and fair process".

BBC