UN Weapons Inspectors Arrive in Iraq

Date: November 18, 2002 • Location: Abu Ghraib District, Iraq

Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

In the Iraq disarmament crisis of the early 2000s, Iraq, led by president Saddam Hussein, was pressured by the United States and its other adversaries to destroy alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—biological, chemical, and nuclear. In the 1980s, Iraq had programs to produce all three, but in the 1990s, the programs were ended, and the WMD were destroyed. The U.S.' rationale for its 2003 invasion of Iraq was that the country still had WMD, and would use them.