The Security Council today voted unanimously to return United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq, offering Baghdad a last chance to comply with its disarmament obligations and recalling previous warnings of “serious consequences” in case of non-compliance. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking in the Council’s chamber immediately after the vote, hailed the resolution for setting out in clear terms Iraq’s obligation to cooperate with the United Nations in ensuring the “full and final disarmament” of the country’s weapons of mass destruction.

“It leaves no doubt as to what these obligations are, nor as to how they must be fulfilled,” he said. “Iraq now has a new opportunity to comply with all the relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
The text adopted by the Council this morning demands that Iraq confirm within a week of being notified by the Secretary-General of the resolution its intention to comply with the text and obliges Baghdad to cooperate “immediate, unconditionally, and actively” with the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).