10 years after Iraq invasion, Hans Blix warns against those pushing false arguments for attacking Iran. As the ten year anniversary of the US-led invasion on Iraq approaches, the former UN weapons inspector from Norway Hans Blix said this week that world powers should heed history’s lessons by not repeating the same mistakes with Iran.
“Memories of the failure and tragic mistakes in Iraq are not taken sufficiently seriously,” the 82-year-old Blix told a group of reporters in Dubai.
“In the case of Iraq, there was an attempt made by some states to eradicate weapons of mass destruction that did not exist, and today there is talk of going on Iran to eradicate intentions that may not exist,” he said. “I hope that will not happen.”
Blix was the chief of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission that led the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq from March 2000 to June 2003, charged with finding evidence of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons, of course, were never found.
“So far Iran has not violated NPT (the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and there is no evidence right now that suggests that Iran is producing nuclear weapons,” Blix said about the current events surrounding Iran.
“It is true that diplomatic negotiations have dragged over the years with little results so far… Some people assume that a war action will solve the problem,” he said, but disagreed with that conclusion.
“I think others should examine what is the merit of that and find that there is much more demerit,” he said, adding that “a war could develop into a terrible conflagration in the region.”
Blix added that Iran gave “positive signals” in meeting with world powers of the P5-1 last week.
By Jacob Chamberlain