• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Press Briefing

---

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at the beginning of today's noon briefing that the Security Council was consulting this morning on the situation in Iraq. At the outset of the consultations, senior United Nations officials -- the Deputy to the Chef de Cabinet, Rolf Knutsson, and the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, who is also the United Nations Security Coordinator -- updated the Council on the Iraqi situation. Council members were presently expressing their views on the "what next?" question.

Following consultations on Iraq, the Deputy Spokesman said, the Council would take up the situation in Guinea-Bissau.

Mr. Almeida e Silva next updated the statement made yesterday by Mr. Sevan and issued by the Office of the Iraq Programme concerning the return to Baghdad of the humanitarian workers who had gone to Amman, Jordan. A final decision on their return would be taken today. Meanwhile, arrangements were being made for their return from Amman to Baghdad by tomorrow. Independent inspection agents from the Lloyds Register were now heading back to their stations. Some agents were already working at Umm Qasr; others were expected to start working at Trebil and Al-Walid tomorrow. Oil exports were continuing, and the Office of the Iraq Programme was assessing the impact of the military strike on the "oil-for-food" programme, which it was expected to produce in a few days.

Continuing on the Iraqi situation, the Deputy Spokesman read out a correction by the World Food Programme (WFP) concerning a number of newswire reports this morning that United States and British air strikes had destroyed 260,000 tonnes of food in a WFP-managed warehouse in Tikrit. The report was erroneous. There were 2,600 tonnes of food in the warehouse and the extent of the damage was still unknown. Moreover, the warehouse was not managed by the WFP, but by the Iraqi Minister of Trade. Also, according to the WFP, 260,000 tonnes of food would be equal to 10 per cent of the overall value of the food basket for six months; in fact, the WFP reported that the damage to the warehouse would not have a major impact on the oil-for-food programme.

............

Asked if he had a read out from the earlier meeting between the Secretary-General and the Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs of the United States, Thomas Pickering, he said he did -- they had discussed Iraq and Libya.

Another correspondent, noting the Secretary-General's comment this morning that he had sent a message to the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, asked about the content of that message. The Deputy Spokesman said he did not have the content of that message.

* *** *