In Depth
Iraq
Hans Blix does not go gentle into that good night
Last Updated October 25, 2006
CBC News
Hans Blix (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Hans Blix is back in the news again, this time saying the war in Iraq is a "pure failure" and Iraqis are in a worse state than they were under Saddam Hussein.
He made the remarks this week in an interview with the Danish newspaper Politiken.
Blix, now 78, has been out of the news for several years but was on global front pages constantly in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan brought Blix out of retirement in 2000 to head the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC).
He outraged the U.S. when he asked for more time to allow his inspectors to do their work in Iraq, which was to find "weapons of mass destruction" be they nuclear weapons or chemical and biological weapons. Early in 2003, soon after Blix's inspectors left Iraq, a coalition of forces led by the U.S. invaded the country.
Blix was born in 1928 in Upsalla, Sweden. In 1981, he became director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which acts as a watchdog to ensure the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is upheld.
It was at this post that Blix became responsible for making sure Iraq adhered to the UN Security Council Resolution 687, which made the IAEA responsible for inspecting Iraq's nuclear facilities and for destroying any nuclear-weapons-making materials.
Blix later acknowledged that during his IAEA tenure, Iraq managed to defy UN sanctions by continuing to develop a nuclear weapons program. The secret Iraqi nuclear program was discovered after the 1991 Gulf War. Blix later said the IAEA "was fooled by the Iraqis."
Once called Iraq invasion 'culture of spin and hype'
Blix irritated both U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair by remarks over preparations for the war in Iraq. He once referred to a "culture of spin and hype" that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, comparing the arguments for war to an advertiser trying to sell a fridge.
He also publicly expressed doubts in the months before the invasion about a British statement that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein could deploy chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes.
Blix now heads the Stockholm-based Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, which earlier this year published a report on the dangers of nuclear weapons. He made world headlines again this year when warned that a tough-line stance against North Korea could lead to an armed response from Pyongyang.
After North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon this month, Blix warned in an interview with Swedish Radio that sanctions and threats of military attacks against North Korea likely would lead to an escalation of tension instead of a diplomatic solution.
"If you look at North Korea's previous reactions when they have been exposed to threats, things have usually escalated," Blix said at the time. "It's a dangerous situation."
Blix's background is in international law. He studied at the University of Upsalla, Columbia University in the U.S., and Stockholm University — where he earned a doctorate in law and served as professor of international law. He spent 13 years in Sweden's foreign ministry before becoming minister of foreign affairs in 1978.
His involvement with the UN began in 1961 as a member of Sweden's delegation to the General Assembly. He represented Sweden at the UN until 1981.
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