Former UN Iraq weapons chief: War would be disaster for Israel

Israel ought to oppose an American attack on Iraq, Scott Ritter, the former head of the United Nations weapons inspection team in Iraq, said yesterday.

In an interview with Ha'aretz, Ritter said an American strike against Iraq would be "a disaster for Israel," as it would have three negative side effects: It would open the door for an Iraqi attack on Israel, whether conventional or nonconventional; it would undermine regional stability and tilt Arab public opinion even further against the U.S. and Israel; and it would increase terrorism inside Israel.

"A war will not be good for Israel. I would be very surprised if anyone in Israel supported such a step," he said.

Ritter said that he did not know for certain whether Iraq either possesses nonconventional weapons or is able to fire missiles at Israel. "My assessment in 1998 was that Saddam [Hussein] did not have this capability, and the Israeli government accepted this assessment," he said. "I don't know what has happened since, but I assume that Israel has continued its excellent intelligence operations. There will always be uncertainty over Iraq's capabilities until inspectors are on the ground."

Ritter quit the weapons inspection team in 1998, charging that neither the UN nor the American administration was backing his effort to conduct thorough checks. Since then, however, he has become a leading opponent of both military action and economic sanctions against Iraq, even traveling to Baghdad last week to give a speech against American military action to the Iraqi parliament.

He argues that the current administration's talk of Iraq's nonconventional weapons is unfounded and meant only to serve its interest in toppling Saddam. The Iraqi leader, he insists, is not the issue; the issue is Iraq's nonconventional weapons - and the way to deal with that is through UN inspections.