By Mark Devenport
BBCAugust 31, 2000
The UN's new team of weapons inspectors for Iraq says it is ready to begin its work inside the country. In a report to the UN Security Council, the Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission, known as Unmovic, confirms that it has trained its first batch of inspectors.
However, so far, Iraq hasn't indicated that it intends to co-operate with the inspectors. The report by the executive chairman of the weapons inspectors, Hans Blix, is just three pages long. Mr Blix informs the Security Council that 44 inspectors from 19 different countries were trained in a month-long course which took place in the US in July and August.
The inspectors were lectured about the scope of Iraq's weapons programmes and various technicalities concerning the monitoring of chemical and biological weapons. Half of those trained have been taken on by Unmovic at its headquarters in New York. Half are being kept on standby, waiting for the day when the inspectors are able to start their work inside Iraq.
Mr Blix says that his commission is now ready to begin its activities inside the country, but the government in Baghdad is certain to have different ideas.
UN weapons inspectors haven't been allowed to set foot in Iraq since the United States and Britain launched air strikes on Baghdad in December 1998. Unmovic officials say it will now be for the Security Council to settle the matter of renewed access with Iraq.
The council has indicated that Iraq must co-operate with the new team of inspectors if it wants the UN sanctions against it to be suspended. Most observers believe there's little chance of progress on the matter ahead of the US election in November. In the meantime, Unmovic will hold further courses to recruit and train more weapons inspectors.
