Hans Blix quotes

Hans Blix is a Swedish diplomat and politician, widely recognized for his work in nuclear disarmament and international inspections. Most notably, he served as the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) in the lead-up to the Iraq War. He continues to be an influential voice in global discussions on arms control and non-proliferation. Here are 34 of his quotes:

It was to do with information management. The intention was to dramatise it.

Hans Blix

In the Middle Ages when people were convinced there were witches they certainly found them. This is a bit risky.

Hans Blix

It's true the Iraqis misbehaved and had no credibility but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were in the wrong.

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.

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.

Hans Blix

There was a very consistent creation of a virtual reality, and eventually it collided with our old-fashioned, ordinary reality.

Hans Blix

International cooperation, multilateralism is indispensable.

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.

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.

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...

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.

Hans Blix

Like I said, I'm more worried long term about the environmental issues then the use of arms.

Hans Blix

By and large my relations with the US were good.

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.

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.

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.

Hans Blix

The U.N. is much more than the case of Iraq.

Hans Blix

Even on television, the wavelengths that you use, they have to be distributed between countries.

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.

Hans Blix

So interviews are a valuable tool, but under certain circumstances they'd be more valuable than others.

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.

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.

Hans Blix