IRAQ: FIRST GROUP OF U.N. ARMS INSPECTORS ARRIVE IN BAGHDAD AFTER A FOUR YEAR ABSENCE.
Record ID:
648092
IRAQ: FIRST GROUP OF U.N. ARMS INSPECTORS ARRIVE IN BAGHDAD AFTER A FOUR YEAR ABSENCE.
- Title: IRAQ: FIRST GROUP OF U.N. ARMS INSPECTORS ARRIVE IN BAGHDAD AFTER A FOUR YEAR ABSENCE.
- Date: 25th November 2002
- Summary: (W5) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (NOVEMBER 25, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: UNITED NATIONS HEADQAURTERS. 0.05 2. SLV: U.N. FLAG FLYING. 0.10 3. SLV: U.N. VEHICLE LEAVING HEADQUARTERS. 0.17 4. VARIOUS: STREET SCENES. (4 SHOTS) 0.36 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(ARAB) AHMED ZAYNEL, AN IRAQI CITIZEN SAYING: "We hope that they (the inspectors) would do their job accurately and undoubtedly, and the colonials should not interfere in their work." 0.52 6. MV: PEOPLE LOOKING AT NEWSPAPERS ON STAND 0.57 7. CU: NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGE. 1.01 8. CU: HEADLINE READING: "BUSH IS THE FIRST TERRORIST IN THE WORLD" 1.05 9. ANOTHER HEADLINE READING: "CRAZY BUSH AND HIS FOOLISH ACTS" 1.08 10. SV: MAN READING NEWSPAPER. 1.12 11. LV: U.N. PLANE COMING INTO LAND. 1.17 12. VARIOUS: U.N. AIRCRAFT TAXIING AFTER LANDING. (2 SHOTS) 1.31 13. VARIOUS: U.N. PLANE ON TARMAC. (3 SHOTS) 1.44 14. VARIOUS: U.N. INSPECTORS DISEMBARKING FROM PLANE, GETTING INTO BUS. (2 SHOTS) 2.12 15. VARIOUS: LUGGAGE BEING UNLOADED FROM PLANE. (3 SHOTS) 2.32 16. SLV: COACH CARRYING INSPECTORS. 2.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 10th December 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA6RVMYOV73WKTO1OQ8GHN6DWPL
- Story Text: The first group of U.N. arms inspectors have arrived in
Baghdad to relaunch a search for weapons of mass destruction
after a four-year absence, a mission that could trigger a
U.S.-led war.
Seventeen inspectors were aboard the flight from Larnaca,
Cyprus, which touched down in Baghdad at 1355 GMT. Eleven are
from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission, charged with searching for missiles and biological
and chemical weapons.
United Nations weapons inspectors landed in Iraq on
Monday (November 25) to begin a crucial mission which could
tip the balance between peace and war in the Middle East.
A group of 17 inspectors, the first to go to Iraq since
inspections ceased in 1998, arrived in Baghdad at around 1355
GMT aboard a chartered cargo plane emblazoned with the U.N.
insignia. The weapons inspectors who had gathered over the
weekend in Larnaca, Cyprus, included 11 from UNMOVIC and six
from the IAEA.
An advance team of U.N. logistics experts has been in Iraq
since last week, preparing the ground for a resumption of
inspections scheduled for November 27.
The United States has threatened military action if
Baghdad violates a toughly worded U.N. Security Council
Resolution demanding Iraq comply with inspections. The Iraqi
leadership denies there are any chemical, biological or
nuclear weapons in the country.
Resolution 1441 obliges Baghdad to allow the inspectors to
peer into every corner of the country. The inspectors must
give their first report to the U.N. Security Council by
January 27.
"We hope that they (the inspectors) would do their job
accurately and undoubtedly, and the colonials should not
interfere in their work," Iraqi citizen Ahmed Zaynel said from
Baghdad.
On Sunday, Iraqi authorities made public an angry letter
to the United Nations over the resolution's terms.
In the first detailed response since Iraq accepted the
resolution on November 13, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri
gave an item by item reply.
"The real motive was to create pretexts to attack Iraq
under an international cover," Sabri wrote in the letter.
Baghdad agreed to produce a full account of its weapons
programme by a December 8 deadline and said U.N. inspectors
would be given free access to all sites across the country.
"We know where we want to go," Melissa Fleming, a
spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),
which is part of the inspection effort with U.N. agency
UNMOVIC, said before the white C-130 Hercules aircraft left
Larnaca airport in Cyprus bound for Baghdad.
Oil prices climbed on Monday as the arms inspectors geared
up for a mission that could deliver peace or war in Iraq.
North Sea benchmark Brent crude stood 29 cents up at
$25.50 a barrel shortly before the inspectors left Cyprus,
while U.S. light crude rose 25 cents to $27.01 a barrel.
Prices eased back slightly later in the day.
Oil traders fear war in the Middle East may disrupt
crucial flows of crude oil from the region, which pumps a
quarter of global supplies.
Twenty tonnes of equipment have already been flown to
Baghdad from Larnaca, including communications gear,
computers, furniture and medicine.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix was to brief the
15-nation Security Council later on Monday about last week's
talks with Iraqi officials on resuming inspections.
The Security Council has also scheduled a vote on Monday
on extending the Iraq humanitarian oil-for-food program for
six months after haggling by the United States over what
Baghdad can import.
The program covers food, medicine and a host of other
civilian supplies to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions imposed
after President Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It
lets Iraq sell unlimited quantities of oil, with revenues
going into a U.N. account that pays vendors of goods Iraq
orders.
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