PRESS RELEASE

Alexander Yakovenko, the Official Spokesman of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Answered the TVTs Question About the British Government's Report on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq

RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

September 28, 2002

Russian experts continue to study carefully the report received from London via diplomatic channels concerning weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. The first assessments are such that this document contains no fresh weighty evidences to confirm the existence in Iraq of WMDs or programs for the development of prohibited military programs. To a significant extent, it is based on a very free interpretation of the declarations of Iraq itself that were repeatedly discussed in the UNSC and which it had submitted in the past to the former Special Commission on Iraq, as well as on the Special Commission's final report of 1999. What also strikes us is the absence of any specific facts in references of the authors of the report to "analytical data" of British intelligence services.

The main thing, however, is that to determine whether there are any WMDs in Iraq or not is only possible by sending UNMOVIC and IAEA inspectors there. In this context we actively support the arrangement for a meeting of the representatives of Baghdad and the United Nations to be held in Vienna on September 30-October 2, and express hope that it will be crowned with concrete results in terms of the expeditious resumption of international monitoring and inspection activities in Iraq.