Security Council

5681^st Meeting* (PM)

SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES TRANSFER OF FUNDS FROM ESCROW ACCOUNT

OF MONITORING BODY TO MEET IRAQ’S BUDGET OBLIGATIONS

 

Responding to a request from the Government of Iraq, the Security Council this afternoon approved the transfer of €1.85 million from the escrow account for the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) to settle that Government’s arrears to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and a further $694,771 from the same account would be put towards the country’s current obligations to the regular United Nations budget, as well as to peacekeeping, the International Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the Capital Master Plan.

A letter dated 7 May from the Secretary-General to the Council (document S/2007/300) outlines the proposals, and indicates that the current balance in the UNMOVIC account stands at about $66.4 million.  The requested transfer, once effected, would leave a residual balance of about $63.1 million.

The Council’s endorsement of the Secretary-General’s proposal is contained in document S/2007/301.

Established as a subsidiary body of the Security Council in 1999, UNMOVIC 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 the country did not reacquire the same weapons prohibited to it by the Security Council.

The meeting began at 12:05 p.m. and ended at 12:10 p.m.

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*     The 5680^th Meeting was closed.

For information media • not an official record