Already a subscriber? Log in
Mr Hans Blix, head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said in a report to the UN Security Council that Iraq had not accounted for its banned weapon: ‘Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it.’ He said of Iraq’s failure to co-operate as demanded by resolution 1441 of the United Nations: ‘It is not enough to open doors. Inspection is not a game of catch as catch can.’ Dr Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in his own report that ‘no prohibited nuclear activities’ had been identified. In his State of the Union speech, President Bush said that Mr Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, would provide more intelligence to the UN Security Council on 5 February. ‘The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving,’ he said. ‘It would take just one phial, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.’ Earlier, Mr Javier Solana, the European Union’s high representative for common foreign and security policy, had said, with reference to Iraq: ‘Europeans in big numbers think that the last-resort moment has not arrived.’ The Turkish armed forces agreed to an initial deployment of 20,000 United States troops there. Israel raided Gaza City with 50 tanks and helicopter gunships, killing 12, two days before its general election, which Mr Ariel Sharon’s Likud party won easily, though it will have to form a coalition. Gianni Agnelli, the man behind the Fiat car group, died, aged 81. Mr Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, invited President Robert Mugabe to visit Paris for the Franco-African summit on 19 February, one day after the expiry of a European Union ban on politicians from Zimbabwe visiting EU countries. Riots met the return of President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast from peace talks in Paris that gave leaders of two insurgent movements places in a new government, including the defence and interior ministries. France passed a law against insulting its flag or national anthem, punishable by a six-month sentence. The European Commission reduced the level allowed in livestock feed of canthaxanthin, a pigment widely fed to farmed salmon, trout and laying hens, lest it blur vision by depositing crystals on the retina.
CSH
Trending
Also in Society
Also by The Spectator
Latest
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in