IRAQ: UNITED NATIONS ARMS EXPERTS HAVE RESUMED INSPECTIONS AFTER A TWO DAY BREAK VISITING MILITARY AND NUCLEAR RESEARCH FACILITIES

Record ID: 337999

  • Title: IRAQ: UNITED NATIONS ARMS EXPERTS HAVE RESUMED INSPECTIONS AFTER A TWO DAY BREAK VISITING MILITARY AND NUCLEAR RESEARCH FACILITIES
  • Date: 8th December 2002
  • Summary: (W2) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 7, 2002)(REUTERS) 1. SLV U.N. INSPECTORS LEAVING THEIR OFFICES AT AL-HAYAT TOWER; SLV U.N. INSPECTORS GETTING INTO THEIR VEHICLES (2 SHOTS) 0.24 2. (SOUNDBITE)(English) UNMOVIC AND IAEA SPOKESMAN IN IRAQ YASHUHIRO UEKI SAYING "Iraqis are meeting the deadline imposed by the Security Council and we will be receiving the declaration then we will help transmit the document to New York and Vienna." 0.39 3. SLV U.N. INSPECTORS LEAVING FOR INSPECTION; SLV STREET (3 SHOTS) 1.06 (W3) TUWEITHA, IRAQ (DECEMBER 7, 2002)(REUTERS) 4. SLV U.N. INSPECTORS ON THEIR WAY TO NUCLEAR SITE; SLV IRAQI SOLDIERS OPENING DOOR TO U.N. INSPECTORS; MV U.N. INSPECTORS INSIDE SITE; MV DAMAGED EQUIPMENT; SLV EXTERIOR OF SITE (10 SHOTS) 2.18 (W4) TUWEITHA, IRAQ (DECEMBER 7, 2002) (REUTERS) 5. SLV YELLOW CONTAINER BEHIND FENCE; SLV BUILDINGS (3 SHOTS) 2.32 6. SLV INTERIORS; SCU TAGGED EQUIPMENT; SCU IAEA TAG; SLV INTERIORS (8 SHOTS) 3.01 7. MV DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF IRAQI ATOMIC COMMISSION, SOROUR MAHMOUD, WALKING TO JOURNALISTS; MV SOLDIER STANDING BY GATE (2 SHOTS) 3.12 8. (SOUNDBITE)(English) SOROUR MAHMOUD SAYING "They came in the morning, they wanted to visit the stores, the stores which contain equipment and also stores containing material. So they visited and they have seen the tags on the machines and they follow up on the machines and all materials which had been inspected before." 3.44 9. SLV SOLDIERS OPENING FRONT GATE; SLV U.N. INSPECTORS LEAVING (2 SHOTS) 4.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 23rd December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, TUWEITHA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAC3BPU7NF7ATWESAFELEK2D3W5
  • Story Text: U.N. arms experts have resumed inspections in Iraq
    after a two-day break, visiting military and nuclear research
    facilities south of the capital.

    The visits, ending a break taken for a Muslim holiday,
    came before Iraq was expected to hand over a declaration on
    its weapons programmes on Saturday (December 7, 2002) to meet a
    Sunday (December 8) deadline set last month by the U.N.

    Security Council.

    "Iraqis are meeting the deadline imposed by the Security
    Council and we will be receiving the declaration then we will
    help transmit the document to New York and Vienna," said U.N.

    Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)
    and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman in
    Iraq Yashuhiro Ueki before leaving for the inspection.

    One team of weapons experts revisited Iraq's main nuclear
    research facility while a second team examined a new military
    industrial research centre.

    Experts from the IAEA inspected the al-Tuweitha nuclear
    facility for two hours. The facility is situated 20 km (12
    miles) south of the Iraqi capital.

    IAEA experts had spent five hours at Tuweitha Nuclear
    Research Centre, the main nuclear programme facility, on
    December 4.

    Sorour Mahmoud, chief of the Iraqi Atomic Commission, told
    reporters the inspectors returned to check on the facility's
    stores where equipment had been monitored by previous
    inspector teams.

    "They checked on the equipment and material in the
    stores." "They saw the (U.N. monitoring) tags on the equipment
    and followed up on the machines," Mahmoud told reporters.

    The Centre, which has been monitored by the IAEA in the
    past, has housed several research reactors and included
    activities such as plutonium separation and waste processing,
    uranium metallurgy, neutron initiator development and work on
    a number of methods of uranium enrichment.

    Tuweitha is the location of the Osirak reactor bombed by
    Israel in 1981. Several tonnes of uranium have been under seal
    by the IAEA at Tuweitha since 1998.

    Inspectors from UNMOVIC examined a compound housing the
    al-Quds (Jerusalem) General Company in the town of
    al-Iskandariyah, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad.

    The company is part of Iraq's state Military
    Industrialisation Commission (MIC). Officials said the
    facility focuses mainly on research in the fields of
    mechanical and munition engineering. It also researches
    artillery and short-range rocket ammunition.

    The experts, accompanied by Iraqi officials, entered the
    site unhindered, but journalists were kept outside.

    Iraq must give a full account of any past and current
    programmes involving biological, chemical or nuclear weapons
    under last month's U.N. resolution.

    Baghdad has denied having any such weapons but the United
    States says it has and vows, that if necessary, it will take
    military action to disarm Iraq.
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