Atomic Reporters’ Tariq Rauf talks with Robert Kelley, former Chief Nuclear Inspector with the IAEA Action Team  and the UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) responsible for destroying Iraq’s nuclear weapon development programme after the first Gulf War in 1991. He was working at the IAEA on the Iraq nuclear file in 2003 at the time of the illegal invasion of Iraq launched by the US seeking illusory weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Kelley asserts that Iraq’s nuclear programme was destroyed by IAEA inspectors by 1992/1993 and that the stated grounds for invading Iraq in March 2003 were built on three false basic premises: that Iraq retained WMD; that it was continuing work on them; and that it was not complying fully with its disarmament obligations under various of United Nations Security Council resolutions. Tariq Rauf, was Head of Verification and Security Policy at the IAEA in 2003; in this conversation with Robert Kelley the two of them discuss the various issues concerning the Iraq nuclear file twenty years ago.

Shortened interview

Full-length interview