Rumsfeld suggests Saddam destroyed arms
US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has suggested that Iraq may have destroyed its alleged chemical and biological weapons before the invasion in March.
He admitted that he did not know why the Iraqi regime had not used so-called weapons of mass destruction against the invading forces as predicted.
Speaking at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, Mr Rumsfeld stated that the speed of the invasion might have caught the government by surprise, but added: ‘It is also possible that they decided that they would destroy them prior to a conflict.’
He confirmed that two trailers found in northern Iraq had been mobile biological weapons laboratories but added that no actual weapons were found on either trailer.
The alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the threat posed by them was used as the main argument for the war in Iraq.
The defence secretary’s comments are the closest the coalition has yet come to admitting that it may not find any chemical or biological weapons in Iraq.
Both Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush had previously stated that they were confident weapons of mass destruction would be found and verified by independent inspectors.
Saddam Hussein’s regime repeatedly claimed to have destroyed its chemical and biological weapons in compliance with the United Nations.
However, Mr Rumsfeld also explained that the search for banned weapons would continue and that Iraq was a large country so it would ‘take time’ to investigate all possible sites.
Although he stressed that Iraq would not be allowed to become a template of neighbouring fundamentalist Iran, he also insisted that the United States had no intention of imposing an ‘American template’ on the country.
The US defence secretary issued a warning to Iran not to interfere in Iraq, calling the country ‘unhelpful’ and declaring that, ‘Iran should be on notice; efforts to try to remake Iraq in Iran’s image will be aggressively put down.’
