Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19981109
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by noting and welcoming the dozen members of the United States Information Agency's Regional Project for the Middle East.
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"Media reports that the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) is removing all its personnel from Iraq are unfounded", Mr. Eckhard said. The UNSCOM had reported that more than 100 of its staff remained on the ground in Iraq, waiting to resume inspection and monitoring activities at a moment's notice. Aside from those, between 25 and 30 people working for UNSCOM were in the process of leaving Iraq, with 14 having departed there on Saturday, five more today and the remainder by the weekend. Those departing staff included visiting experts due to return home and technical experts who had become inactive due to Iraq's refusal to cooperate with UNSCOM. The UNSCOM had asked staff-lending Member States to allow the returning experts to speedily resume their Iraq activities once Baghdad had rescinded its decision to block all UNSCOM activities.
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