The $30 million echo of Iraq

Hans Blix, the former UN weapons inspector, has spoken out against President Donald Trump's war against Iran, accusing him of ignoring international law and using 'far-fetched' justifications for the conflict. Blix, who was born in Sweden in 1928 and studied at Cambridge University, was a professor of international law and served as Sweden's Foreign Minister in the 1970s.

He led the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997 and was the first Western official to inspect the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.. Blix was tasked with finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003, but failed to find any evidence.

He has now spoken out against Trump's war against Iran, saying that the administration's justifications for the conflict are 'far-fetched' and that the US is ignoring international law.

Why 4,000 unsold units became the prize

Blix accused Trump of treating international law as irrelevant and said the administration's justifications for the Iran war were 'far-fetched.' He also took aim at War Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of showing a 'contemptuous attitude' toward the rules of war.

Blix argued that the Trump Administration's case for striking Iran bore a troubling resemblance to that advanced before the invasion of Iraq. He was born in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1928 and studied at Cambridge University in the UK before becoming a professor of international law.

He was Sweden's Foreign Minister in the 1970s, then led the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997. In that role, he was the first Western official to inspect the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

An echo of Sydney's 2024 institutional buy-up

Blix was tasked with finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2003, but failed to find any evidence. He has now spoken out against Trump's war against Iran, saying that the administration's justifications for the conflict are 'far-fetched' and that the US is ignoring international law.

Blix accused President Trump of ignoring international law with his war against Iran. Blix is now a member of the European Leadership Network, an independent group of 450 former ministers,diplomats and security experts working on global security challenges.

Who is the unnamed buyer?

Blix was born in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1928 and studied at Cambridge University in the UK before becoming a professor of international law. He was Sweden's Foreign Minister in the 1970s, then led the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997.

In that role, he was the first Western official to inspect the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. But it was Iraq that made him a global name. As war loomed, Kofi Annan, then the UN Secretary General, asked Blix to come out of retirement to lead the hunt for the weapons that Washington insisted Saddam was hiding.

Blix led the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and did not go easy on Baghdad. He criticized Iraq for failing to be transparent about its weapons progras and repeatedly demanded proper cooperation.

Tehran's two-track response

Blix never found evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. However, after inspecting 700 potential sites, he did not find the smoking guns that the Bush administration wanted.

In February 2003, he told the UN Security Council that inspectors had 'not found any such weapons, only a small number of empty chemical munitions.' His reports fell far short of giving President Bush the evidence that would secure UN support for a war on Iraq.

Instead, Bush ordered Blix and the other inspectors to pull out of Iraq and, in March, the US, UK and a smattering of coalition allies invaded without a UN mandate .