PRESS RELEASE

Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Saltanov Meets with Vice President Taha Ramadan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Naji Sabri of Iraq

RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

January 17, 2003

On January 16, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Saltanov held meetings in Baghdad with the Iraqi Vice President, Taha Ramadan, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naji Sabri, in the course of which the situation around Iraq was thoroughly discussed.

Saltanov reaffirmed the principled stand of Russia for a solution of the Iraq issue exclusively by politico-diplomatic means on the basis of the implementation of relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. Much in this sphere, it was underlined, depends on the results of the work being carried out by UNMOVIC and IAEA in accordance with the mandate given to them by UNSCR 1441. In this context Saltanov emphasized the necessity of further constructive cooperation by Baghdad with international inspectors, including the questions left open in the inspection bodies' view after they have studied the declaration handed over by Iraq in December of last year on its banned military programs. The Russian representative called on the Iraqi side to undertake vigorous efforts to clear them up definitively, in particular, within the framework of the upcoming visits to Baghdad of the UNMOVIC and IAEA heads, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei. This would be of great importance to their preparation of an objective report on the course of the inspections, to be submitted to the Security Council on January 27, and would make it possible to move to the solution of the disarmament tasks, as set by UNSCR 1284.

The Iraqi side declared the intention of Baghdad to continue to cooperate with the international inspectors and to look for solutions to the questions that arise on the basis of a positive dialogue with UNMOVIC and IAEA.

During the conversations, a number of questions of bilateral Russian-Iraqi cooperation, including in the oil and gas industry, were also discussed.