Iraqi arms dossier arrives at UN

BBC ^ | 9 December 2002

[Asmodeus]

Iraq's weapons dossier has arrived at United Nations headquarters in New York, after the 12,000-page document was flown in from Baghdad.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix was on hand to receive the documents, and said that work would begin at once to decide how to process the huge quantity of information.

Iraq has challenged the United States to provide evidence that Iraq still possesses weapons of mass destruction.

General Amir al-Saadi, an advisor to Saddam Hussein, said the dossier was an "honest, truthful and comprehensive" account of Iraq's weapons programmes.

It contained 800 sites that could be monitored by the inspectors - everyone could see Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, he said.

Two copies of the chemical, biological and missile components of the dossier arrived at the UN building in New York at 2040 on Sunday (0140GMT Monday).

The nuclear component of the dossier has been sent to the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

The documents had been first flown from Baghdad to Nicosia in Cyprus, and then on via Frankfurt.

An IAEA spokeswoman said analysts were to start work immediately and the organisation aimed to give a preliminary briefing to the Security Council within two weeks.

Inspectors have to study the declaration and brief the Security Council.

26 January: Sixty days from the start of their work, inspectors have to report on their progress. Inspections can be halted at any time, and "serious consequences" ensue if Iraq obstructs inspectors.

On their ninth day of work, inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) visited a geological research facility in central Baghdad.

Biological and chemical experts went to the Fallugah complex where Iraq produced chemical and biological arms in the past.

Another contingent of 25 inspectors arrived in Baghdad on Sunday, more than doubling the existing team.

The UN have also brought in a helicopter to help them cover much more of this vast country, says the BBC's Ben Brown in Baghdad.

The adviser to the Iraqi leader told journalists the weapons declaration was so long because - based on Resolution 1441 - the government had had to include details on anything that was of potential dual use such as tanneries, breweries, and even factories manufacturing slippers.

General al-Saadi said each document was in two parts: one detailing work until 1991 - before the Gulf War - and the other including the period from 1991 to the present.

Responding to questions about US and UK allegations, General al-Saadi said: "Let them come up with it, give it to the IAEA, give it to Unmovic. They are here - they could check it. Why play this game?"

US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage has meanwhile arrived in Japan on the first leg of an Asian tour aimed at building support for American policy on Iraq.

The BBC's Mark Doyle says the world's most sought-after set of documents will be put under lock and key.

The first task for the Unmovic inspectors will be to black out any sections of the declaration which could lead to information about weapons of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands.

So any plans for building nuclear devices or what the inspectors called "biological cookbooks" will be cut out before the Security Council itself gets a look at the declaration, our correspondent says.

[The Great Satan]

The new phone books have arrived!

[crypt2k]

"...The first task for the Unmovic inspectors will be to black out any sections of the declaration which could lead to information about weapons of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands.

So any plans for building nuclear devices or what the inspectors called "biological cookbooks" will be cut out before the Security Council itself gets a look at the declaration, our correspondent says..."

The US agreed to this?

[Route66]

From what I understand, we did not agree to it. The reports seemed to indicate that Bush was not amused by Blix's newly claimed power over the report and we have made it clear that we expect to see the COMPLETE report. Anything less will be useless to us as we cannot base response on a report translated and edited by any third party.