The Independent. 18 September 1998 Iraqi missiles were 'free of VX' A spokesman for UN weapons inspectors declined comment on a report that tests conducted in France and Switzerland contradicted US findings that Iraqi missiles were armed with deadly VX nerve gas before the 1991 Gulf war. The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper said it had learned that Switzerland and France had unofficially informed the UN secretariat that most of their tests of the samples of Iraqi warheads showed they were free of VX.