DATE=1/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ / NUKES - L ONLY
NUMBER=2-258006
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A team of foreign nuclear experts is headed for
Iraq to check on that nation's compliance with a
treaty governing nuclear weapons. These are the first
outsiders to look at Iraq's nuclear sites since a
dispute over UN weapons inspections sparked major
bombing raids by U-S and British forces in 1998. V-O-
A's Jim Randle reports a nuclear weapons expert calls
the new inspections a small step in the right
direction.
TEXT: Iraq has agreed to allow a four or five person
team from the International Atomic Energy Agency to
carry out a routine inspection inside the country.
Top I-A-E-A officials say they will check radioactive
substances that Iraqi engineers could use to produce
weapons-grade nuclear materials.
The I-A-E-A effort is separate from the UN weapons
inspections that have been suspended for more than a
year. Weapons expert Spurgeon Keeny, of the private
Arms Control Association, says Wednesday's
announcement could signal progress toward reviving the
U-N program designed to find and destroy Iraq's
suspected programs to produce weapons of mass
destruction.
/// SPURGEON KEENY ACT ///
It's at least a possibility that (Iraqi leader)
Saddam Hussein will be persuaded to accept it.
I'm not optimistic about this but it is too
early to foreclose that possibility.
/// END ACT ///
Most experts outside Iraq think Baghdad's nuclear
program has been largely eliminated, but say Iraq
might still be developing chemical and biological
weapons.
/// OPT ///
The last I-A-E-A nuclear inspection was in 1998.
That's about the time Baghdad blocked efforts by UN
weapons inspectors to make intrusive, surprise
inspections of suspected nuclear, chemical, biological
and missile weapons sites.
The inspectors left and the dispute escalated into the
major US and British air raids dubbed `Operation
Desert Fox.' Tensions continue with two or three
western bombing raids a week over Iraq in the year
since.
The UN Security Council has craft a new weapons
inspection program but so far Iraq has been dismissive
of the effort.
/// END OPT ///
I-A-E-A inspectors could leave for Iraq next week.
They are enforcing the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty that Iraq signed in 1972. (Signed)
NEB/JR/JO
12-Jan-2000 13:27 PM EDT (12-Jan-2000 1827 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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