Posted on 09/30/2002 1:59:55 PM PDT by Asmodeus
VIENNA, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- The Iraqi delegation was cooperating in the first of two-days of "practical arrangements" talks for the return of weapons inspectors, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix said Monday, adding "there were many specific clarifications" to his inquiries of concern.
The talks were on logistics, communications, security and other support needs for the possible resumption of Security Council-mandated inspections. They opened at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which conducts its own Iraq inspections.
Blix, executive director of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, was first to report Thursday to the Security Council at U.N. world headquarters in New York on the outcome of the discussions Monday and Tuesday.
Monday's talks were on "entry into Iraq and the accommodation of inspectors, the headquarters that we have in Baghdad and movement inside Iraq, security of inspectors, the taking of samples and taking of samples out of Iraq, etc.," Blix said.
He said the purpose of the talks, "is that we'd like to ensure that if, and when, inspections come about, we will not have clashes inside (Iraq). We'd rather go through these things outside in advance. And we even said that we would not deploy inspectors to Iraq until we have had talks about these things."
Leaving the meeting Monday evening, he said, "We have had a very full day of discussions, and we have completed the first reading of all the practical arrangements that we have identified in the past."
He said the talks would resume as scheduled Tuesday.
"Many issues have been clarified," Blix told reporters after emerging from the first round. "Discussions and talks will be over some time tomorrow. ... I certainly don't think it will be before lunch."
"Everything was discussed," he said. "It was the first reading of all the practical arrangements that we have taken up on our lists."
"Was there specific clarification from the Iraqi delegation," a reporter asked.
"There were many specific clarifications," Blix responded, declining to go into detail.
"Can you characterize the level of cooperation from the Iraqi delegation?" he was asked.
"Well, we have set talks and they have cooperated in talking with us," Blix replied, later describing the discussions as in a "Very businesslike atmosphere, knowledgeable, everyone there in the room knows something about this subject."
Senior officials sitting at the long narrow table at IAEA headquarters included Blix, IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei and Amir al Sadi, special adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Officials said that no statements would be made on the progress or outcome of discussions until after the conclusion of meetings.
Iraq said it would accept the return of inspectors after U.S. President George W. Bush's Sept. 12 speech to the U.N. General Assembly calling for support against Iraq for its decade of defiance of U.N. resolutions demanding inspections in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. Inspectors were pulled out in December 1998 on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing campaign in retaliation for non-cooperation with inspectors.
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