DATE=1/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ INSPECTION (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257990
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The government of Iraq says it will allow
the first weapons inspection in the country in
more than one year. V-O-A correspondent Scott
Bobb reports from our Middle East Bureau in Cairo
that the Iraqi government emphasizes, however,
this inspection is not part of the United Nations
program to monitor Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction.
TEXT: Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Nizar
Hamdoon, told reporters Wednesday that a team of
inspectors from the International Atomic Energy
Agency, based in Vienna, would arrive next week
to conduct a one-week, routine inspection.
The Iraqi official underscored that the visit was
due under a nuclear non-proliferation agreement
signed by Iraq in the early 1970s.
An agency spokesman in Vienna confirmed a five-
member team is due to travel to Baghdad via
Jordan next week. He said the team will inspect
stocks of uranium, which were sealed shortly
before agency staff left Iraq more than one year
ago.
Most United Nations workers left in December 1998
amid a rising confrontation between Iraq and the
U-N Special Commission charged with ensuring that
Iraq dismantled its nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons programs. The confrontation led
to several nights of intense bombing raids by U-S
and British war planes.
///REST OPT///
Iraq later allowed U-N humanitarian workers to
return but said the United Nations weapons
monitoring program was finished.
Iraq said it was time for the world community to
unconditionally lift economic sanctions that have
crippled the economy and reduced per capita
income to one-fifth its level 10 years ago.
The U-N Security Council insisted sanctions would
only be lifted if the weapons monitors were
allowed to return. After months of debate, it
passed a compromise plan three weeks ago that
would lift the sanctions for four months at a
time, if Iraq complied with a new weapons
program. The council agreed to disband the
special commission and set up a new monitoring
agency.
Iraq has called for substantial modifications in
the latest proposal saying it imposes new
conditions and seeks to monitor programs that no
longer exist. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a
message to his people last week said he believes
the sanctions are eroding and will eventually
disappear. (SIGNED)
NEB/SB/GE/KL
12-Jan-2000 10:38 AM EDT (12-Jan-2000 1538 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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