BERLIN, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said he believes Washington created facts to justify the U.S.-led war on Iraq last year.
In an interview with the online German weekly news magazine Stern, Blix said the war "was in no case justified."
"I think Saddam Hussein destroyed most (weapons) after the Gulf War in 1991," he said. "We know now that Saddam was a danger to his own nation but not for the world."
U.S. President George Bush has come under pressure in recent weeks after former chief U.S. arms inspector David Kay resigned and expressed his conviction that information on major weaponry had been falsely interpreted.
Blix concurred with Kay.
"Sanctions and inspections work. They also help with nuclear disarmament -- as long as they are professionally and independently carried out," he said.
Bush has appointed a nine-member bipartisan committee to investigate the work of intelligence agencies before the Iraq war although the committee's report is not expected to be released before the U.S. presidential election in November.
