20 November 1997
UNSCOM TO RESUME WORK IN IRAQ
(Security Council approves inspectors' return) (270) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- After reviewing a letter from Iraq on resuming weapons inspections, the Security Council November 20 gave the Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) the go-ahead to return to Baghdad. Security Council President Huasun Qin of China told journalists after the council's private meeting that "in view of the letter addressed to the president by the foreign minister of Iraq and the statement of the five permanent members, the Security Council endorses the immediate resumption of UNSCOM and IAEA of their activities in Iraq so as to carry out their mandate under the council's resolutions." Qin said that the council is also "ready to consider any recommendations by the special emergency session of the UNSCOM board which is meeting on November 21. UNSCOM chairman Richard Butler said that the more than 70 weapons experts will return to Iraq from Bahrain on November 21 and begin inspections on November 22. "I'm satisfied by the decision of the Government of Iraq. We will go back now and get back to work and I honestly hope that our work will follow a normal pattern and be marked by cooperation and progress in disarmament," Butler said. Butler said that the council encouraged him to take up with Iraqi officials a work program he proposed in late October, before Iraq decided to expel the American UNSCOM weapons inspectors. The chairman said that he and senior members of UNSCOM will visit Baghdad "at a relatively early date."
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