DATE=1/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ INSPECTION (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257990
BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB
DATELINE=CAIRO
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  The government of Iraq says it will allow 
the first weapons inspection in the country in 
more than one year.  V-O-A correspondent Scott 
Bobb reports from our Middle East Bureau in Cairo 
that the Iraqi government emphasizes, however, 
this inspection is not part of the United Nations 
program to monitor Iraqi weapons of mass 
destruction.

TEXT:  Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Nizar 
Hamdoon, told reporters Wednesday that a team of 
inspectors from the International Atomic Energy 
Agency, based in Vienna, would arrive next week 
to conduct a one-week, routine inspection.

The Iraqi official underscored that the visit was 
due under a nuclear non-proliferation agreement 
signed by Iraq in the early 1970s.

An agency spokesman in Vienna confirmed a five-
member team is due to travel to Baghdad via 
Jordan next week. He said the team will inspect 
stocks of uranium, which were sealed shortly 
before agency staff left Iraq more than one year 
ago.

Most United Nations workers left in December 1998 
amid a rising confrontation between Iraq and the 
U-N Special Commission charged with ensuring that 
Iraq dismantled its nuclear, biological and 
chemical weapons programs. The confrontation led 
to several nights of intense bombing raids by U-S 
and British war planes.

///REST OPT///

Iraq later allowed U-N humanitarian workers to 
return but said the United Nations weapons 
monitoring program was finished.

Iraq said it was time for the world community to 
unconditionally lift economic sanctions that have 
crippled the economy and reduced per capita 
income to one-fifth its level 10 years ago.

The U-N Security Council insisted sanctions would 
only be lifted if the weapons monitors were 
allowed to return.  After months of debate, it 
passed a compromise plan three weeks ago that 
would lift the sanctions for four months at a 
time, if Iraq complied with a new weapons 
program. The council agreed to disband the 
special commission and set up a new monitoring 
agency.

Iraq has called for substantial modifications in 
the latest proposal saying it imposes new 
conditions and seeks to monitor programs that no 
longer exist. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a 
message to his people last week said he believes 
the sanctions are eroding and will eventually 
disappear. (SIGNED)

NEB/SB/GE/KL 



12-Jan-2000 10:38 AM EDT (12-Jan-2000 1538 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.