Hans Blix quotes

I found it peculiar that those who wanted to take military action could - with 100 per cent certainty - know that the weapons existed and turn out to have zero knowledge of where they were. (Hans Blix)
It was to do with information management. The intention was to dramatise it. View quote
Hans Blix
In the Middle Ages when people were convinced there were witches they certainly found them. This is a bit risky. View quote
Hans Blix
It's true the Iraqis misbehaved and had no credibility but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were in the wrong. View quote
Hans Blix
They have been saying for a long time that Iraq made an effort to import active uranium, and my colleague demonstrated the other day that they came to the conclusion that it was a fake document that everybody is relying upon. View quote
Hans Blix
What surprises me, what amazes me, is that it seems the military people were expecting to stumble on large quantities of gas, chemical weapons and biological weapons. View quote
Hans Blix
There was a very consistent creation of a virtual reality, and eventually it collided with our old-fashioned, ordinary reality. View quote
Hans Blix
International cooperation, multilateralism is indispensable. View quote
Hans Blix
If you take the biological weapons in the United States we still will have perhaps a single individual who was able to make anthrax, dry it, and spread it through the mail and cause terror. View quote
Hans Blix
But I would say if the Security Council is only relevant if it agrees with the United States, then we have come a long way in a direction that I do not like very much. View quote
Hans Blix
I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. Not that I cared very much. (Hans Blix)
... there are people in this administration who say they don't care if the UN sinks under the East river, and other crude things... View quote
Hans Blix
Personally, Mr. Blix is amiable and has a sense of humor; politically he is weak and easily fooled. I can think of few European officials less suitable for a showdown with Saddam. Indeed, it is with utter disbelief that I watch television news about Mr. Blix's negotiations with the Iraqi dictator's henchmen. [...] Regardless of how this crisis develops from this point, the United Nations has neglected its duties by asking a wimp to lead the inspectors who are supposed to stand up to the brute of Baghdad. View quote
Hans Blix
Like I said, I'm more worried long term about the environmental issues then the use of arms. View quote
Hans Blix
By and large my relations with the US were good. View quote
Hans Blix
The inspections started in 1991, right after the Gulf War. One of the conditions for the ceasefire was that Iraq had to do away with all of its weapons of mass destruction - biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. View quote
Hans Blix
The South Africans decided that they would like to prove to the world they did not have any nuclear weapons and their decision was not doubted because it was the end of the Cold War, it was also the end of apartheid. View quote
Hans Blix
Iraq did not spontaneously opt for disarmament. They did it as part of a ceasefire, so they were forced to do it, otherwise the war might have gone on. So the motivation has been very different. View quote
Hans Blix
The U.N. is much more than the case of Iraq. View quote
Hans Blix
Even on television, the wavelengths that you use, they have to be distributed between countries. View quote
Hans Blix
The world has gotten so interwoven. (Hans Blix)
I also hear your president say that war is the means of last resort and I think he means that. I met him last autumn and he assured me that they wanted to come through and disarm Iraq by peaceful means, and that's what we are trying to do as hard as we can. View quote
Hans Blix
So interviews are a valuable tool, but under certain circumstances they'd be more valuable than others. View quote
Hans Blix
On big issues like war in Iraq, but in many other issues they simply must be multilateral. There's no other way around. You have the instances like the global warming convention, the Kyoto protocol, when the U.S. went its own way. View quote
Hans Blix
I don't think that anyone seriously fears that the world can be blown to pieces all together. But what one can fear and rightly so are regional things, like in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, the Korean Peninsula, borders in Africa, etc. View quote
Hans Blix