PRESS RELEASE

On the United Nations Security Council's Consultative Meeting on Iraq

RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

January 10, 2003

A consultative meeting of the United Nations Security Council was held on January 9, at which UNMOVIC Chairman Hans Blix and IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei spoke, reporting the interim results of international inspection activities in Iraq.

The UNMOVIC and IAEA chiefs confirmed that Iraq provides immediate and unconditional access for inspectors to all the sites being checked, as a rule, without prior notice. No signs of the existence of WMDs or the implementation of prohibited programs have been found in the course of 250 inspections. The checks have made it possible to form a more complete idea of the state of affairs in the so-called disarmament dossiers of Iraq, above all in the nuclear field. Yet the IAEA and, in particular, UNMOVIC still have questions to Baghdad, which require further clarifying. For these purposes it is planned to continue inspections and contacts with the Iraqi side, including holding interviews with persons who had a bearing on the now-prohibited programs.

On the whole, the briefings of the Security Council confirm that the resumed inspection activities in Iraq have opened a real way to the removal of "blank spots" in the disarmament dossiers and to resolving the situation exclusively by politico-legal means on the basis of relevant UNSC resolutions. In this regard, it is crucial that Iraq continue to show constructive cooperation with UNMOVIC and IAEA, promptly answering in full all the questions they may have, and that the international inspectors go on fulfilling the duties placed on them with maximum professionalism and objectivity.

The next discussion of Iraq-related problems in the UNSC is scheduled for the end of January, when UNMOVIC and IAEA are to report on the outcome of the first two months of inspection activity.