1.1 | UK
Iraq strategy 1990 to 2000
635.
Mr Annan
submitted reports from the IAEA and UNSCOM covering the
period
since
17 November to the President of the Security Council on
15 December.256
636.
The report
from Dr ElBaradei, of 14 December, was very short, simply
listing
the IAEA’s
activities and reporting that Iraq had “provided the necessary
level
of co‑operation”
to enable it to complete the tasks “efficiently and
effectively”.
In
discussions on “the few remaining questions and concerns related to
Iraq’s
clandestine nuclear
programme”, Iraq had “expressed its intention to
continue
to co‑operate
with the IAEA on the resolution of the issues”.257
637.
Mr Annan
told the Security Council that the report from UNSCOM
presented
“a mixed
picture” and concluded that “UNSCOM did not enjoy full
co-operation
638.
In his report
of 15 December, Mr Butler briefly rehearsed the impact of
Iraq’s
policies on
UNSCOM’s ability to carry out its tasks before 17 November,
adding that,
since its
return on 17 November, UNSCOM had focused on four main
areas:
•
requests
for information through access to documents and interviews of
Iraqi
personnel;
•
monitoring
inspections;
•
inspection
of capable sites; and
•
disarmament
inspections relating to proscribed weapons and
activities.259
639.
Mr Butler
reported that UNSCOM had asked for 12 sets of documents related
to
chemical
weapons and missiles and access to the archives of Iraq’s Ministry
of Defence
and the
Military Industrialisation Corporation. In response, Iraq had
provided only one
set of
documents, and a preliminary assessment indicated that they did not
contain the
information
sought.
640.
Other points
included:
•
UNSCOM had
repeated its request for the return of the document seized at
the
Iraqi Air
Force headquarters in July 1998, which detailed Iraq’s
consumption
of special
warheads in the 1980s. Iraq had refused, stating that it was
“ready
only to
‘consider’ … relevant portions of the document” in the presence of
the
Secretary-General’s
Special Representative.
256
UN Security
Council, 15 December 1998, ‘Letter dated 15 December 1998
from the Secretary-General
addressed
to the President of the Security Council’
(S/1998/1172).
257
UN Security
Council, 15 December 1998, ‘Letter dated 14 December 1998
from the Director General of
the
International Atomic Energy Agency addressed to the
Secretary-General’ (S/1998/1172).
258
UN Security
Council, 15 December 1998, ‘Letter dated 15 December 1998
from the Secretary-General
addressed
to the President of the Security Council’
(S/1998/1172).
259
UN Security
Council, 15 December 1998, ‘Letter dated 15 December 1998
from the Executive
Chairman of
the Special Commission established by the Secretary-General
pursuant to paragraph 9 (b) (i)
of Security
Council resolution 687 (1991) addressed to the Secretary-General’
(S/1998/1172).
143