World

Report: France Hushed Iraqi VX

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 7, 1998 / 4:24 PM EDT / CBS

France detected traces of nerve gas on Iraqi warheads but withheld the findings because it does not want to undermine Baghdad's attempts to get U.N. sanctions lifted, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Testing on samples taken from the weapons show evidence of chemicals linked to VX, a drop of which on the skin, or inhaled, can kill an adult within minutes, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified weapons experts.

In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said today it was not aware that French experts had found traces of VX on samples examined there. However, ministry spokeswoman Anne Gazeau-Secret added: "I suppose that, if this were the case, we would already know about it or we would soon be officially informed by the Special Commission, which informs members of the Security Council."

To the question of whether French experts delayed communicating results, she said: "The French laboratory was chosen by the Special Commission. French authorities did not intervene at all in their work."

Iraq, which has been the subject of seven years of United Nations weapons inspections, has admitted it tried to make VX but has denied it was ever able to make enough of it or stabilize it sufficiently to load into weapons.

U.N. arms experts must certify that Iraq has destroyed its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons -- and the long-range missiles to deliver them before the Security Council will lift crippling sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, sparking the Gulf War.

Swiss tests on warheads turned up negative.

But a U.S. Army laboratory, in tests whose results were disclosed in June, concluded that missile fragments contained traces of the gas.

Weapons experts told the Times that the French findings would confirm the American tests. They showed the presence of components found in decomposed VX in missile warheads destroyed by Iraq and dug up by U.N. inspectors.

Diplomats said the French were delaying the release of final tests because they didn't want to undermine Iraq's push at the United Nations this week to lift the sanctions, the Times said.

France, which has major commercial interests in Iraq, has urged the U.N. to move faster to ease the sanctions imposed after the Gulf War.

Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Tuesday that the Security Council has a "legal" and "moral" obligation to lift economic sanctions imposed against the nation after the Gulf War.

However, talks between Aziz and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan aimed at finding a formula to resume U.N. weapons inspections -- which Iraq cut off two months ago -- ended Wednesday without agreement. Annan's office said "both sides agreed that the process of dialogue would continue."