SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES TRANSFER OF FUNDS FROM MONITORING BODY ESCROW ACCOUNT TO SETTLE IRAQI ARREARS WITH ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY

Security Council

5301^st Meeting (PM)

SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES TRANSFER OF FUNDS FROM MONITORING BODY ESCROW ACCOUNT

TO SETTLE IRAQI ARREARS WITH ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY

Responding to a request from the Government of Iraq, the Security Council today approved a proposal to transfer more than $2 million from the escrow account for the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) to the budget of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in order to settle the outstanding arrears of the Iraqi Government with the Agency.

A letter dated 2 November from the Secretary-General (document S/2005/702) draws the Council’s attention to an amount of $2,182,168, plus 226,493 euro, in UNMOVIC’s escrow account, and proposed the transfer to the Agency’s budget.  The letter recalls that, in June, a similar request in the amount of $20,256,697 had been approved by the Council in respect of the obligations of the Iraqi Government for the Organization’s regular budget, peacekeeping and Tribunal activities. 

The proposal’s approval by the Council will be reflected in a letter to the Secretary-General (document S/2005/703).

(The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was created through the adoption of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999).  It replaced the former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), with a mandate to verify Iraq’s compliance with its obligation to rid its territory of mass destruction weapons, and missiles with a range of more than 150 kilometres, and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification to ascertain that it did not reacquire the same weapons prohibited to it by the Security Council.) 

The meeting began at 12:12 p.m. and was adjourned at 12:16 p.m.

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For information media • not an official record