An advance team of United Nations arms inspectors has travelled to Iraq to prepare for the arrival of the full complement of monitors and the restart of investigations into the country’s weapons programmes.

Hans Blix, Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived Sunday afternoon in Larnaca, Cyprus, on their way to Iraq.

Speaking to the press at the airport, Mr. Blix said, “We are going there (Iraq) to initiate cooperation with the Iraqis and to talk with the representatives of the Iraqi Government.” The first inspectors would arrive a week later and they planned to start weapons inspections from 27 November onwards.

Mr. Blix added that he would report to the Security Council two months after the resumption of inspections, and that the Iraqi declaration to be submitted no later than 8 December would be analyzed by UNMOVIC and serve as an important basis for verification.

Dr. ElBaradei said that this was a new phase in IAEA inspections in Iraq and that they were fully backed by the Council to verify the disarmament of Iraq through inspections. “This is an opportunity for peace,” he said, adding that he hoped that Iraq would make full use of this opportunity and cooperate in the implementation of Security Council resolutions, which would “open the way for them to come back as a full member of the international community and suspend and eventually eliminate sanctions.”
Dr. ElBaradei stressed that IAEA inspectors were going to do thorough and objective inspections, and indicated that the Agency would report to the Council two months after the resumption of their inspections.

The question of “war and peace” was first of all in the hands of the Iraqis and the Security Council, Mr. Blix said in response to reporters’ questions. “We will inspect and report on cooperation or a lack of cooperation. I will do so objectively to the Security Council,” he said, noting that it was for the Council to assess Iraqi cooperation - UN News.