SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES IRAQ NOT TO TAKE PRECIPITOUS ACTION PRIOR TO VISIT OF UNSCOM EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN TO BAGHDAD NEXT WEEK
Press Release
SG/SM/6436
IK/236
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES IRAQ NOT TO TAKE PRECIPITOUS ACTION PRIOR TO VISIT OF UNSCOM EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN TO BAGHDAD NEXT WEEK
19980112 The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for Secretary- General Kofi Annan:The Secretary-General was briefed this afternoon by the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, on the circumstances relating to the statement by an official spokesman for Iraq with respect to UNSCOM inspections currently under way in Iraq.
He has also seen the letter by the Executive Chairman to the President of the Security Council today, a copy of which was passed to the Permanent Representative of Iraq with the request that it be transmitted immediately to Baghdad.
As indicated in that letter, the inspection team, which in fact conducted inspections of seven sites with the full participation of the Iraqi side, comprised 44 inspectors of 17 nationalities, not only the 16 inspectors to whom Iraq has expressed objection.
The Secretary-General hopes that this clarification could contribute to a solution to the present difficulty and that a problem will no longer exist. He reiterates his call on Iraq not to take precipitous action prior to the visit of the Executive Chairman, to Baghdad, next week.
The Secretary-General has also spoken to the Permanent Representative of Iraq, Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon, who agreed to the Secretary-General's request that he express to Baghdad the Secretary-General's concerns.
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