PRESS STATEMENT ON IRAQ BY PRESIDENT OF SECURITY COUNCIL

Following is today’s press statement on Iraq by Jeremy Greenstock (United Kingdom), President of the Security Council:

In informal consultations on Iraq, we heard a briefing from the Chef de Cabinet Iqbal Riza on behalf of the Secretary-General on the Secretary-General’s talks with the Foreign Minister of Iraq and his team in Vienna on 4 and 5 July.  The members of the Council expressed deep gratitude to the Secretary-General and his team for persevering with these efforts with the Iraqi team on implementation of the resolutions.  The Chef de Cabinet reported some Iraqi movement towards complying with obligations under the resolutions on Kuwaiti property and archives and on agreement on the setting up of a mechanism for that.  Council members expressed the hope that this would lead to concrete Iraqi action on those issues.  Otherwise they repeated the need for Iraq, immediately, to fulfil all requirements under the resolutions, including on Kuwaiti missing persons and on the unconditional return of weapons inspectors.

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