Hans Blix on Iraq War: "I am of the firm view that it was an illegal war"

Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix pulled no punches in his appearance before the independent panel examining Britain's part in the Iraq war.   As far as he's concerned it was an illegal war.

"Some people maintain that Iraq was legal. I am of the firm view that it was an illegal war.  There can be cases where it is doubtful, maybe it was permissible to go to war, but Iraq was, in my view, not one of those."

From the Global Security Newswire:

"I think the U.S. at the time was high on military," Blix, a former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at today's hearing. "They felt that they could get away with it (an invasion), and therefore it was decided they would do so."



Blix said today that U.N. inspectors checked 500 facilities but found very little proof of illicit weapons efforts in Iraq in the months before March 2003, the BBC reported. He cited missiles with ranges beyond what was allowed by the United Nations, missile engines and records among the discoveries.


"We carried out about six inspections per day over a long period of time," Blix said."All in all, we carried out about 700 inspections at different 500 sites and, in no case, did we find any weapons of mass destruction."


He added that it was difficult for Iraq "to declare any weapons when they did not have any."


Blix argued that U.N. resolutions issued before the invasion did not create a legal standing for the war.