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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: stockman_scott who wrote (56948)11/13/2002 2:58:56 PM
From: Karen Lawrence  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 281500
 
Well, lookee here, Iraq accepts UN resolution:

sfgate.com

Iraq delivers letter to secretary-general accepting U.N. resolution, Iraq's U.N. ambassador says

EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Wednesday, November 13, 2002

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(11-13) 08:48 PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) --

Iraq, facing a Friday deadline and the threat of war, has accepted a tough new U.N. resolution that will return weapons inspectors to the country after nearly four years, the country's U.N. ambassador said.

"The letter says that Iraq will deal with Security Council resolution 1441 despite its bad contents," Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri said Wednesday.

"We are prepared to receive the inspectors within the assigned timetable," he said. "We are eager to see them perform their duties in accordance with international law as soon as possible."

In the letter, Iraq reiterates that it has no weapons of mass destruction, Al-Douri said.

"We explained in the letter the whole Iraqi position saying that Iraq ... has not and will not have any mass destruction weapons, so we are not worried about the inspectors when they will be back," he said.

Al-Douri delivered the letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office. Annan was in the Washington area on Wednesday to deliver a speech and meet with President Bush, who has repeatedly threatened Iraq with a U.S.-led war if it fails to comply with inspectors.

The secretary-general on Tuesday dismissed a vote earlier that day by Iraq's parliament opposing the tough new resolution and expressed hope that the government would accept the resolution adopted unanimously last Friday by the U.N. Security Council.

Iraq's acceptance would clear the way for the arrival of an advance team of U.N. inspectors on Monday.

The team will be led by U.N. chief inspector Hans Blix, who is in charge of biological and chemical inspections, and Mohamed ElBaradei, head if the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is in charge of nuclear inspections.

Al-Douri said Iraq hopes its acceptance of the resolution will avoid the threat of war. "We are always opting for the path of peace," he said.

The resolution demands that Iraq cooperate fully with the inspectors, who can go anywhere at any time to search for weapons of mass destruction.

It warns that Iraq faces "serious consequences" if it doesn't comply -- and the United States has made clear that an Iraqi failure to cooperate will almost certainly mean a new war.

On Tuesday, the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son, Odai Saddam Hussein, proposed making Arabs part of the U.N. team, echoing a recommendation from the Arab League.

Blix's office said it has trained inspectors from 49 countries, including six Jordanians, one Moroccan and five Turks. "We don't get too many applications from Arabic countries and we would welcome more applications from people who have the right expertise," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

ElBaradei said the IAEA in the past had "many inspectors from many Arab countries" and this was not a problem.