CYPRUS: U.N. ARMS INSPECTORS ARRIVE IN CYPRUS TO RELAUNCH A HUNT FOR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ

Record ID: 647189

  • Title: CYPRUS: U.N. ARMS INSPECTORS ARRIVE IN CYPRUS TO RELAUNCH A HUNT FOR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ
  • Date: 17th November 2002
  • Summary: (U4) LARNACA, CYPRUS (NOVEMBER 17, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV CHIEF UNITED NATIONS WEAPONS INSPECTOR HANS BLIX ARRIVES AT NEWS CONFERENCE WITH EGYPT'S MOHAMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY 0.09 2. MCU (English) BLIX SAYING: "We are going there to initiate the progression with Iraqis and to talk with the representative of the Iraqi government, and we also bring in a number of people who will arrange the logistics office. There will be laboratories that we'll have and a large number of jeeps, helicopters and we'll have an aeroplane and so forth, so there's quite a lot to organize. But the first inspectors will arrive about one week after us, and they will go out to inspections from the 27th, I think we can count as the first inspection, actually. Two months after that, we shall update the Security Council on what we have seen. "Meanwhile, Iraq is expected and asked by the Security Council to submit a declaration on the 8th of December, thirty days after the adopted resolution, and we will then analyse that declaration and, of course, very much depends upon the content of that declaration. We hope and we trust and we expect that they will report to the declaration and whatever may remain of the (weapons) programmes and also a great deal of things from the sector which they claim are for peaceful purposes and nuclear or biology and chemistry...not in missiles...but at least in these areas. "So, we are on our way and we're off tomorrow (to Baghdad) and then we'll be back soon, but we'll leave some people behind, and I give you to my friend Mohamed ElBaradei who will speak on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency." PAN TO MCU (English) ELBARADEI SAYING: "Well, as Doctor Blix mentioned, this is a new phase in our inspection in Iraq. We are now backed fully by the Security Council to verify the disarmament of Iraq through an inspection. This is an opportunity for peace. I hope Iraq will make full use of it. It is an opportunity for Iraq, if it is fully co-operative, co-operating in all respects, in the language of the Security Council resolution, that they open the way for them to come back to be full member of the international community and to suspend and eventually eliminate sanctions. "We are going to have lots of work to do, we are going to do a thorough, independent, objective inspection. It is going to take a lot of time, so you have to bear with us, but we need to do a comprehensive work. We will, as Doctor Blix mentioned, report to the Security Council two months after our resumption of an inspection which we expect to be before the end of this month." 2.39 3. SV BLIX AND ELBARADEI TAKE QUESTIONS FROM REPORTERS 2.43 4. MCU BLIX (IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTION ASKING HOW THE INSPECTORS WILL DEAL WITH TRYING TO UNCOVER ALLEGEDLY CONCEALED WEAPONS) SAYING: "It certainly is a challenge to try to find underground installations. We do, of course, expect to get tips from various member states. We also have modern equipment which is very superior to what we had in the past. But, in the first place, we'd like the Iraqis to declare, because this is an opportunity for them to do so, and we hope that they will seize that opportunity." 3.07 5. SV BLIX AND ELBARADEI AT THE END OF THE NEWS CONFERENCE 3.14 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LARNACA, CYPRUS
  • Country: Cyprus
  • Reuters ID: LVAPYP2E2ZW2JYTTTM2E0DX1440
  • Story Text: Backed by a U.S. threat of war, U.N. inspectors arrived
    in Cyprus on Sunday to relaunch a hunt for weapons of mass
    destruction in Iraq after a four-year break. Chief U.N.

    weapons inspector Hans Blix arrived with Egypt's Mohamed
    ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
    and the two men held a news conference.



    Leaders of the first arms inspectors since the last
    ones left in 1998 complaining that President Saddam Hussein
    would not cooperate, said Iraq's fate -- lifting of sanctions
    or war -- depended on its hiding nothing.

    Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Egypt's Mohamed
    ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency
    explained to journalists in Larnaca on Sunday (November 17)
    how the inspection team's mission would proceed.

    "We are going there to initiate the progression with
    Iraqis and to talk with the representative of the Iraqi
    government, and we also bring in a number of people who will
    arrange the logistics office. There will be laboratories that
    we'll have and a large number of jeeps, helicopters and we'll
    have an aeroplane and so forth, so there's quite a lot to
    organize."
    Blix says formal inspections start on November 27, and he
    expects to have 100 inspectors in Iraq by the end of the year.

    The first significant test is a December 8 deadline for
    Iraq to submit a full account of all its banned weapons
    programmes. By January 27 next year, the inspectors must have
    given their first report to the U.N. Security Council.

    "Iraq is expected and asked by the Security Council to
    submit a declaration on the 8th of December, thirty days after
    the adopted resolution, and we will then analyse that
    declaration and, of course, very much depends upon the content
    of that declaration. We hope and we trust and we expect that
    they will report to the declaration and whatever may remain of
    the (weapons) programmes," Blix said.

    Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said that, while
    Iraq was ready to comply fully, the results would expose as
    lies U.S. charges that Iraq had been arming for war.

    Hanging on the results of inspections were both the threat
    of a U.S.-led war and the prospect -- if Iraq is given the
    all-clear -- of a lifting of crippling 12-year-old sanctions.

    "This is an opportunity for peace. I hope Iraq will make
    full use of it. It is an opportunity for Iraq, if it is fully
    co-operative, co-operating in all respects, in the language of
    the Security Council resolution, that they open the way for
    them to come back to be full member of the international
    community and to suspend and eventually eliminate sanctions,"
    ElBaradei told journalists on Sunday.

    Blix's United Nations Monitoring Verification and
    Inspection Commission has set up its logistics base near
    Cyprus's main airport at Larnaca.

    "We ... have modern equipment which is very superior to
    what we had in the past. But, in the first place, we'd like
    the Iraqis to declare, because this is an opportunity for them
    to do so, and we hope that they will seize that opportunity,"
    Blix said.

    After the three-hour flight to Baghdad, Blix's first group
    will reactivate surveillance cameras, hire helicopters and set
    up communication equipment.

    A private South African charter airline Safair, which has
    been involved in other UN operations, will ferry inspectors
    between Cyprus and Baghdad in a C-130 aircraft.


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