Fed: Weapons could be destroyed, buried or in Syria - Butler
CANBERRA, April 13 AAP - Australia could make a more legal contribution to the warin Iraq by participating in a peacekeeping force, former chief UN weapons inspector RichardButler said today.
Mr Butler said an interim authority in Iraq needed a peacekeeping component to keep order.
"There needs to be an urgent discussion about that (an interim authority), I suggestwithin the UN context," Mr Butler told the Seven Network.
"If Australia were invited to, or asked to be consider to be a part of that, it wouldbe consistent I think with good Australian foreign policy to make such a contribution.
"I think that would look a bit better and more legal than the contribution we're makingat the moment to the US-led coalition."
Meanwhile, Mr Butler, an Australian, said if weapons of mass destruction were not foundin Iraq they could have been destroyed, buried or taken to Syria.
"If weapons are now not found it is either because A, they don't exist but they didpreviously, so that means they've been destroyed," Mr Butler said.
"They need to find people who can give an account of that destruction.
"Or B, as I used to say to the inspectors, they're somewhere else.
"In other words, they've been taken out of the country or they've been deeply buried somewhere.
"I think that's possible."
When asked where weapons could have been taken, Mr Butler said Syria.
"I saw evidence in the past of smuggling of some of the weapons across the border intoSyria," he said.
AAP lm/sek/jlw
KEYWORD: IRAQ AUST BUTLER
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