PRESS BRIEFING BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN

UNITED NATIONS
Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

June 20, 2002

Excerpts

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**Iraq

From the Office of the Iraq Programme, we have this announcement.

Following the consent of the Government of Iraq, the Office of the Iraq Programme will now proceed with the necessary arrangements to deploy United Nations independent inspection agents at Ar'ar border crossing point between Iraq and Saudi Arabia for the purpose of confirming and authenticating the delivery of supplies to Iraq under the oil-for-food programme.

This is based on a request from Saudi Arabia for the opening of the border crossing point at Ar'ar dating back to October 2000.  The Government of Iraq indicated its agreement to the United Nations earlier this month.

Ar'ar border crossing point would be the fifth under the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Iraq and the United Nations on the implementation of the oil-for-food programme.  The existing four border crossing points are:  Trebil between Iraq and Jordan; Al-Walid between Iraq and Syria; Zakho between Iraq and Turkey; and the port of Umm Qasr in the Gulf.  It will take several weeks for the border crossing point to be operational.

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