The Inspector Calls

When is a flat tire simply a flat tire and when is it an act of sabotage that could ignite a war? As head of UNMOVIC, the U.N. inspection team charged with overseeing Iraqi disarmament, Hans Blix arrived in Baghdad last week to face such momentous questions. After touching down at Saddam International Airport, Blix fielded reporters' questions before being whisked away to the Al Rasheed Hotel. Iraqi Lieut. General Amer al Saadi later hosted talks with Blix and praised the Swedish diplomat's "integrity and impartiality." Blix thanked him for his "warm welcome," but added a sly reference to Iraqi obstruction, saying he regretted that his team had been unable to visit Baghdad many months earlier.

I've heard that Hans Blix is soft. I'm not a pacifist. Diplomacy has to be backed by force Q&A How have your meetings with the Iraqis been? Very professional and effective. What signals are you getting? They seem determined to implement the latest resolution. The attitude has been constructive. I'm not predicting how things will be in the future. We haven't started the inspections yet. What are your expectations? I would expect them to cooperate correctly on the inspections. I'm sure they'd like to avoid anything that could be characterized as interference in our work. The consequences could be horrendous. What's the biggest challenge? No question that it is their declaration [on existing weapons programs]. What do they declare? How does that square with information that is out there already? The Bush Administration assumes that Saddam Hussein has active weapons programs that he plans to conceal from your inspectors. Does UNMOVIC share that assumption? I wouldn't say that we have any assumption at all. Nor do we give any benefit of the doubt. We have to try to establish the facts. I'm not contesting [that Iraq has ongoing weapons of mass destruction programs]. I'm also not confirming it. We have to go by evidence. The Iraqis live in a tense situation. If there is something, they would be gambling not to present it. UNMOVIC relies on U.N. member states for intelligence support, and such cooperation was a big source of friction between UNSCOM and the Iraqis. Will that relationship be handled differently this time around? Yes. It seems clear that UNSCOM lost its legitimacy in the eyes of the world by having too close a relationship with the intelligence agencies. We want intelligence from as many sources as possible, but we don't want to be led by the nose. We think [intelligence support for UNMOVIC] should be in principle one-way traffic. But there has to be some measure of dialogue. We have to tell them what we think is interesting, what type of information we would like to have.

Blix, 74, has been entrusted with judgment calls that could delay or hasten war. He downplays the difficulty of his job — knowing when Iraq is trying to thwart his inspectors, he says, will "be a matter of common sense." Until last week the closest Blix had come to Baghdad in recent years was the satellite photo of the Iraqi capital that dominates one wall of his spartan office at U.N. headquarters in New York. The space reflects both Blix's low-key personality as well as the fact that nobody took UNMOVIC that seriously until two months ago, when President Bush warned the U.N. to disarm Saddam or step aside. Suddenly, UNMOVIC was at the center of the action for the first time since it was created in 1999 to replace UNSCOM, the inspection team that was withdrawn from Iraq after being denied access to sensitive sites. Blix, who spent 16 years heading the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was tapped to lead UNMOVIC when the U.S.'s preferred pick, former UNSCOM chief Rolf Ekeus, was nixed by France and Russia on the grounds that Iraq would never readmit him. Washington hawks — who charge that under Blix the IAEA missed weapons programs in both Iraq and North Korea — still see his selection as a sop to Saddam.

"I've heard that Hans Blix is soft," says Blix himself. "Well, it's true that I prefer peaceful solutions. And so, it seems to me, does [President Bush]. I'm not a pacifist. Sometimes diplomacy has to be backed by force." As for the IAEA charges, Blix says the agency never got the authority it sought to monitor Iraq. On North Korea, he says, it was his IAEA that blew the whistle on Pyongyang's weapons program back in 1994. Blix is also quick to point out that once nominated for the UNMOVIC job — after Kofi Annan had tracked him down on holiday in Antarctica — he was the U.N. Security Council's unanimous choice. The hawks still complain about Blix, but the White House has quietly set about working with him, summoning him for consultation three times in as many weeks before he left for Iraq.

Trained in law, Blix views his assignment through a legalistic prism: inspectors are mere witnesses, the Security Council will be judge and jury in the case against Iraq. "Our job is to establish the facts, not to humiliate or provoke anyone," he says. "It's the Council, not UNMOVIC, that will choose between war and peace." Blix took an active role in the debate preceding the adoption of U.N. Resolution 1441, signaling his belief that the effectiveness of inspections depends both on unanimity and on an explicit warning to Iraq of the consequences of noncompliance. The Council gave him what he (and Bush) wanted, but Blix knows that the unanimous vote has not resolved differences among Council members. Mediating such tensions is all part of the diplomatic life Blix chose decades ago. Still, wouldn't he rather go someplace other than Baghdad? "No, this is my job," he laughs. "But I would like to see my wife. I haven't seen her for quite some time. Stockholm is also very nice."