UN Arms Inspectors Arrive in Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, November 19, 2002

UN Arms Inspectors Arrive in Iraq

Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix and his team arrived in Baghdad on Monday, marking the significant return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq for the first time after an absence of four years.

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Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix and his team arrived in Baghdad on Monday, marking the significant return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq for the first time after an absence of four years.

The advance team of about two dozen members touched down at the airport on a chartered C-130 Hercules cargo plane at about local time 1:10 p.m. (1010 GMT).

Before their departure from Cyprus, Ewen Buchanan, spokesman forthe team, described the eye-catching mission to Baghdad as "a new chapter," expecting cooperation from Iraqi officials in a "thoroughand independent inspection."

On the eve of his departure for Baghdad, Blix made it clear that "the question of war and peace remains first of all in the hands of Iraq and the UN Security Council and members of the Security Council."

The advance group will reopen offices in Baghdad to prepare for inspection operations authorized by the UN Security Council to determine if Iraq has pursued programs of development weapons of mass destruction.

Blix has said preliminary inspections are expected to resume on Nov. 27, but full-scale checks will not start until Iraq files a declaration of its prohibited weapons programs by a Dec. 8 deadline.

Blix, a 74-year-old Swede, is head of the New York-based UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, which will search for biological and chemical weapons and the long-range missiles in Iraq.

He arrived here together with Mohamed ElBaradei, director of theVienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which will determine if Iraq has a secret program to develop nuclear arms.

Iraq, which has insisted that it does not have any such weapons,on Wednesday agreed to allow UN arms inspectors to return to Iraq in search of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons after the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1441.

The resolution gives Iraq "a final opportunity" to eliminate itsnuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the long-range missiles.

It also gives inspectors the right to go anywhere at any time and warns Iraq that it will face "serious consequences" if failing to cooperate with the United Unions.

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