Israel ought to oppose an American attack on Iraq, Scott Ritter, the former head of the United Nations weapons inspection team in Iraq, said yesterday.

In an interview with Ha'aretz, Ritter said an American strike against Iraq would be "a disaster for Israel," as it would have three negative side effects: It would open the door for an Iraqi attack on Israel, whether conventional or nonconventional; it would undermine regional stability and tilt Arab public opinion even further against the U.S. and Israel; and it would increase terrorism inside Israel.

"A war will not be good for Israel. I would be very surprised if anyone in Israel supported such a step," he said.

Ritter said that he did not know for certain whether Iraq either possesses nonconventional weapons or is able to fire missiles at Israel. "My assessment in 1998 was that Saddam [Hussein] did not have this capability, and the Israeli government accepted this assessment," he said. "I don't know what has happened since, but I assume that Israel has continued its excellent intelligence operations. There will always be uncertainty over Iraq's capabilities until inspectors are on the ground."

Ritter quit the weapons inspection team in 1998, charging that neither the UN nor the American administration was backing his effort to conduct thorough checks. Since then, however, he has become a leading opponent of both military action and economic sanctions against Iraq, even traveling to Baghdad last week to give a speech against American military action to the Iraqi parliament.

He argues that the current administration's talk of Iraq's nonconventional weapons is unfounded and meant only to serve its interest in toppling Saddam. The Iraqi leader, he insists, is not the issue; the issue is Iraq's nonconventional weapons - and the way to deal with that is through UN inspections.

Yishai's plan

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Eli Yishai is preparing a multimillion-shekel plan to improve the Fire Department's ability to contend with either an Iraqi strike or a mass terror attack. The plan will soon be presented to the cabinet for approval.

Ordinary citizens also stepped up their preparations for an Iraqi assault yesterday, despite Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's announcement that he is willing to let UN weapons inspectors return. An estimated 15,000 people besieged offices of the Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command to trade in their old gas masks for new ones, compared to about 10,000 a day at the beginning of the month and 3,000 to 4,000 a day two months ago. The 30 offices are open from 10 A.M. to 8 P.M., but the Home Front Command says the shortest lines can be found from 10 A.M. to noon and 2 P.M. to 5 P.M.

Yishai's plan includes stationing a NIS 6 million, 88-meter-high crane in the Gush Dan area, to be used to evacuate people from skyscrapers in the event of an emergency. The Fire Department's only existing crane is a mere 42 meters high and cannot reach the top floors of many buildings in the area. The plan also calls for purchasing cranes capable of lifting up to 30 tons, which would be used to rescue the wounded from the rubble of a collapsed building.

In addition, plan includes more basic equipment, such as protective suits to enable firefighters to rescue victims of chemical or biological attacks. Currently, the Fire Department has only 100 such suits; Yishai wants to purchase several hundred more, at a cost of NIS 10,000 apiece.

Hundreds of Israeli firemen and rescue personnel will also receive smallpox vaccinations in the coming days, as part of the ongoing preparations for a possible nonconventional strike by Iraq against Israel in the event of a American assault on Baghdad.

Two major exercises aimed at contending with missile strike scenarios and terror attacks involving light aircraft will also be held as part of these preparations in the coming months. The first exercise will take place at the end of September at the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv, and the second in November at the Pi Glilot fuel depot north of Tel Aviv, which was the target of a terror attack earlier this year.

During a discussion last month on the nation's readiness in the event of a biological warfare threat from Iraq or from terrorists, the security cabinet decided that Israel would vaccinate some 15,000 security, medical and rescue personnel against smallpox. Officials said that the step was a prelude to a possible later stage in which the entire population would be inoculated, if security circumstances dictate the move. The Health Ministry announced in August that it had produced enough smallpox vaccine for the entire population of 6.6 million people, as well as tourists and some 300,000 foreign workers. The ministry has said it would begin inoculating the entire population if the United States attackes Iraq. Such a campaign would take a week to execute, the ministry said.