DATE=1/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=IRAQ / NUKES - L ONLY
NUMBER=2-258006
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=

VOICED AT: 

INTRO: A team of foreign nuclear experts is headed for 
Iraq to check on that nation's compliance with a 
treaty governing nuclear weapons.  These are the first 
outsiders to look at Iraq's nuclear sites since a 
dispute over UN weapons inspections sparked major 
bombing raids by U-S and British forces in 1998. V-O-
A's Jim Randle reports a nuclear weapons expert calls 
the new inspections a small step in the right 
direction. 

TEXT: Iraq has agreed to allow a four or five person 
team from the International Atomic Energy Agency to 
carry out a routine inspection inside the country.

Top I-A-E-A officials say they will check radioactive 
substances that Iraqi engineers could use to produce 
weapons-grade nuclear materials. 

The I-A-E-A effort is separate from the UN weapons 
inspections that have been suspended for more than a 
year. Weapons expert Spurgeon Keeny, of the private 
Arms Control Association, says Wednesday's 
announcement could signal progress toward reviving the 
U-N program designed to find and destroy Iraq's 
suspected programs to produce weapons of mass 
destruction.

            /// SPURGEON KEENY ACT ///

      It's at least a possibility that (Iraqi leader) 
      Saddam Hussein will be persuaded to accept it.  
      I'm not optimistic about this but it is too 
      early to foreclose that possibility. 

            /// END ACT /// 

Most experts outside Iraq think Baghdad's nuclear 
program has been largely eliminated, but say Iraq 
might still be developing chemical and biological 
weapons. 

            /// OPT ///

The last I-A-E-A nuclear inspection was in 1998.  
That's about the time Baghdad blocked efforts by UN 
weapons inspectors to make intrusive, surprise 
inspections of suspected nuclear, chemical, biological 
and missile weapons sites.

The inspectors left and the dispute escalated into the 
major US and British air raids dubbed `Operation 
Desert Fox.' Tensions continue with two or three 
western bombing raids a week over Iraq in the year 
since. 

The UN Security Council has craft a new weapons 
inspection program but so far Iraq has been dismissive 
of the effort. 

            /// END OPT ///

I-A-E-A inspectors could leave for Iraq next week.  
They are enforcing the nuclear non-proliferation 
treaty that Iraq signed in 1972. (Signed)

NEB/JR/JO



12-Jan-2000 13:27 PM EDT (12-Jan-2000 1827 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.