The UN Security Council has decided to release the Iraqi arms declaration to those members with the expertise to assess the risks of proliferation and other sensitive information.
In a bid to jumpstart the Seucrity Council's own review of the text, its president said in a press statement released late Sunday night that several members were authorized in helping the inspectors with their first assessment of the document.
It said that the review will be conducted in close coordination and consultation with the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and will assist them "in producing a working version of the declaration as soon as possible."
Responding on Monday morning to questions about the council's decision, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters that he thinks the council "is the master of its own deliberations."
"If the council decided to do that, it is their right and I will not quibble with that," he said.
"The documents have just arrived, and as you all know, the inspectors will have to review them, analyze them, and report to the council," Annan said, noting that the process "is going to take a while."
The Iraqi declaration, which had been handed over to the UN on Saturday evening in Baghdad, arrived on Sunday night at UN headquarters in New York, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters at a press briefing. The bulk of the Iraqi document, 11,807 pages in total, covers chemical, biological and missile components.
Under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1441, passed on Nov. 8, false statements or omissions in the declaration, coupled with a failure by Iraq to comply with inspections, "shall constitute a further material breach of Iraq's obligations" and shall lead to serious consequences for Iraq.
(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2002)
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