Editorial: Still no mandate to invade

The report of the United Nations weapons inspection of Iraq, tabled as scheduled yesterday, sounds ominously inconclusive. After two months and more than 350 inspections, no prohibited munitions have been found. But neither the inspection commission nor the members of the Security Council are satisfied that Iraq has disarmed itself in accordance with repeated UN resolutions. The report outlines deficiencies in the information Iraq has supplied.

European members want to give Saddam Hussein more time to comply; the United States warns his time is running out. It might sound like nothing has changed, but in one sense progress has been made. For the first time since the Gulf War 11 years ago, UN inspectors have at least been allowed to go about their task unhindered and complete it as scheduled.

They appear to have met no active resistance from Iraqi authorities and their complaint now is that they received no active assistance either. As British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw put it, Iraq has "co-operated on process but not on substance". The chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told the council: "It is not enough to open doors. Inspection is not a game of catch-as-catch-can. Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance of the disarmament that was demanded of it."

Mr Blix has not asked for more time, although the council seems likely to send his team back to continue the search. His report amounts to an admission of failure and the only reason the inspection might continue is the hope that Saddam could become more helpful if the US rattles the sabres of war a little more.

It is a reasonable hope. The only reason the latest inspection went ahead, for the first time since a UN team was expelled in 1998, was the credibility of the Bush Administration's determination to see Saddam disarmed, if not removed entirely.

Mr Bush could salvage considerable credit from the showdown if he was prepared to accept the findings of the inspection so far. Saddam has not owned up to the chemical, biological and ballistic equipment the US is certain that he possesses, but it is some consolation that this time he has opened all sites the inspectors wanted to see and they have found nothing of concern.

The UN inspection commission does not share the conviction of the White House that Baghdad is still hiding prohibited material. It is "not presuming there are proscribed items in Iraq, nor is it presuming the opposite", said Mr Blix. Clearly, whatever intelligence the commission has been given by the US, it has not found it convincing.

It is past time that the US shared that evidence with the world if it wants world opinion to support an unprovoked "pre-emptive" invasion of Iraq. So far the State Department has publicly pointed to a series of discrepancies between previous Iraqi arms admissions and the contents of its voluminous declaration to the Security Council last month. Mr Blix says Iraq has not answered questions about the location of quantities of VX nerve gas, two tonnes of nutrients for the production of biological agents such as anthrax, 550 artillery shells filled with mustard gas and 6500 chemical bombs. Iraq says all such material has been accounted for or destroyed since the Gulf War.

Whatever the truth, the inspection has not produced evidence to support the American charges, nor has it been actively hindered in its attempt to do so. Iraq has provided "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access", as required by the UN resolution. That was some achievement. What President Bush has yet to achieve is the production of sufficient evidence to give him a broad mandate to invade.

Full text: Dr Blix's statement

Herald feature: Iraq