28 April 1998
[EXCERPTS] UNITED NATIONS REPORT, TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1998
"A WORLD OF NEWS FROM THE WORLD ORGANIZATION" Daily Highlights Monday, 27 April, 1998 This daily news round-up is prepared by the Central News Section of the Office of Communications and of Public Information at the United Nations. ...... -- UNSCOM reports verification is key to determining Iraq's disarmament claims. -- Atomic Energy Agency reports no indications of prohibited equipment, materials or activities in Iraq. ............. -- -- -- UNSCOM REPORTS VERIFICATION IS KEY TO DETERMINING IRAQ'S DISARMAMENT CLAIMS. The head of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM), says Iraq's heightened policy of disarmament by declaration, no matter how vigorously pursued or stridently voiced, could not remove the need for verification as the key means through which the credibility of its claim can be established. UNSCOM is responsible for determining whether Iraq has dismantled its weapons of mass destruction. In his latest report to the Security Council, UNSCOM Executive Director, Richard Butler, says a major consequence of the recent crisis authored by Iraq has been that, in contrast with the prior reporting period, "virtually no progress in verifying disarmament has been able to be reported". According to the report, the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Iraq in February, contains a clear promise of compliance with Security Council resolutions and decisions and full cooperation with UNSCOM. If Iraq offered full and real cooperation, the report states, it would not find UNSCOM lacking in its willingness or ability to verify honestly, with a high degree of scientific and technical competence and with all possible dispatch, materials that would validate Iraq's claim and lead to a full accounting in all weapons areas. A UN spokesman said on Monday that the UNSCOM report covered a significant amount of time before the Secretary-General's February mission to Baghdad. In the Memorandum, he said, Iraq committed itself to allow UNSCOM unfettered access. Since then, during inspections of presidential sites, Iraq had "made good on that pledge". The Secretary- General was pleased at the implementation of the Memorandum and was hopeful it would continue, he added. The Spokesman said Iraq's detailed response to UNSCOM's biennial report contains several annexes on the Iraqi accounting of the activities of the UN inspection teams and monitoring groups, the technical evaluation meetings and a list of weapons, materials and destroyed equipment from 1991 to 1997. -- -- -- ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY REPORTS NO INDICATIONS OF PROHIBITED EQUIPMENT, MATERIALS OR ACTIVITIES IN IRAQ. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that, during its ongoing monitoring and verification work, it has found no indications of prohibited equipment, materials or activities in Iraq. According to the latest IAEA report to the Security Council, Iraq satisfactorily produced a consolidated version of its full, final and complete declaration of its clandestine nuclear programme. Iraq also fulfilled its obligations to produce a document containing a summary of the technical achievement of its clandestine nuclear programme. The report states that Iraq's declarations contained expanded information on certain sites involved in the production of materials, equipment and components, as well as design, research and development work. The declarations also included more complete information on Iraq's isotope holdings. However, the report notes, information was not provided on a number of sites and, in general, there was a continuing need for improvement in the consistency and accuracy of the data. The report states that Iraq's declaration of nuclear material transactions and inventories covering 1 January 1989 to 31 December 1991 were reviewed in detail to further clarify nuclear material flows and inventories at the principal locations at which nuclear material was used or stored. The Iraqi counterpart had provided revised data that appeared to take into account many of the requested classifications, the report observes, adding that the data was currently under detailed review. The IAEA report says most inspections were done without prior announcement, and a number were also conducted in cooperation with UNSCOM monitoring groups. No indication of prohibited materials, equipment or activities was detected during those inspections. -- -- -- ...........
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
