Iraq.

The accumulated effect of the work of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on Iraqi disarmament over the six years since the ceasefire between Iraq and the Coalition went into effect "is such that not much is unknown about Iraq's retained proscribed weapons capabilities", according to a report (S/1997301) submitted on 11 April by the Commission's Executive Chairman, Rolf Ekeus.

What remains unaccounted for, however, is cause for concern. "Even a limited inventory of long-range missiles would be a source of deep concern if those missiles were fitted with warheads filled with the most deadly of chemical nerve agents, VX. If one single missile warhead were filled with the biological warfare agent, Anthrax, many millions of lethal doses could be spread in an attack on any city in the region", Mr. Ekeus warned. Therefore, the Commission must continue its work. According to the Executive Chairman, the Special Commission has made "extraordinary efforts" to conclude a full accounting of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles, in order to be able to make sure that all the proscribed items have been disposed of.

(Iraq has admitted it has produced quantities of the nerve agent VX, as well as tonnes of Anthrax and other highly lethal biological warfare agents. It insists that these have been destroyed secretly, but has failed to provide supporting documentation or other acceptable evidence that would allow UNSCOM to verify their destruction.)

During the period under review - 11 October 1996 to 11 April 1997 - Iraq "generally cooperated with visiting UNSCOM teams", but a major exception has been Iraq's protracted refusal to permit the removal of missile remnants which the Commission, in the beginning of November 1996, had excavated for analysis abroad, he said. Iraq's actions have only delayed the process of completing the Commission's tasks.

While the monitoring system continues to function, certain actions by Iraq in seeking to impede and limit inspection activities and endanger aerial operations "call into question Iraq's long-term intentions and constitute a challenge to the system as a whole", Mr. Ekeus noted.

However, recent "firm commitments" by Iraq to maintain the monitoring system to the satisfaction of the Commission, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Security Council "give rise to the hope that the deterioration will be reversed so that the system can again engender the required confidence to assure the international community that Iraq has not resumed prohibited weapons activities", he said. The report concluded that the solution of remaining problems "requires the major political decision by Iraq's leadership to give up, once and for all, all capabilities and ambition to retain or acquire proscribed weapons".

New UNSCOM Executive Chairman

Richard Butler of Australia has been appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, with effect from 1 July. Mr. Butler, currently his country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, will succeed Mr. Ekeus, who has served in that post since the Commission was set up in 1991.

At a 1 May joint press briefing with his designated successor, Mr. Ekeus said he drew "satisfaction from what had been achieved by the United Nations since 1991 and the coalition liberation of Kuwait". Rather than dictating the ceasefire conditions, the coalition had decided to hand over the complex issues of disarming Iraq to the United Nations, "as an expression of confidence in the Organization and its capabilities".

Working with IAEA, he continued, UNSCOM had acted to identify Iraq's nuclear weapons programme. In the area of chemical weapons, it had destroyed large quantities of agents and munitions. The Commission had also succeeded in destroying Iraq's production facilities for biological weapons. However, not all the weapons that Iraq had admitted to having produced or acquired had been accounted for.

Mr. Ekeus, indicating disappointment that the situation had not reached the point where the Security Council would have been able to lift sanctions against Iraq, called the Iraqi people "victims" of a situation that had prevented the Commission from disposing all Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles and related means of production.

He called the monitoring and verification system that had been put into place the Commission's "crowning achievement", and added that it would now be impossible for Iraq to re-establish its prohibited weapons programmes without being detected, as long as the Commission's inspectors remained present in Iraq.

Mr. Butler said the Commission's work remained a very important job for the United Nations and an important task for the whole international community, including the people of Iraq. The work had the full authority of the Security Council behind it and it must continue to be done until it was completed.

The two-month transition period was not only necessary, but would prove to be very important to ensure his smooth takeover, he said. "The job must continue until it is finished." Continuity was the key; the Commission would not change.

According to an 11 April report (S/1997/297) from IAEA, over 850 inspections have been conducted in the implementation of the ongoing monitoring and verification plan since the establishment of the IAEA Nuclear Monitoring Group in August 1994. The majority of those inspections have been carried out with no prior announcement, and a number of them have been conducted in cooperation with UNSCOM monitoring groups. Also, according to the report, Iraq's obstruction of the unrestricted rights of UNSCOM and IAEA to use fixed and rotary wing aircraft for overflights throughout the country "make it impossible to consider the ongoing monitoring and verification plan to be fully operational".

Faster pace for humanitarian supplies

It was reported on 12 May that, as of that date, a total of 657,581 metric tonnes of humanitarian food supplies authorized under Security Council resolution 986 (1995) - the oil-for-food formula - had arrived in Iraq. Twenty ships had reached Umm Qasr, in southern Iraq, bearing an estimated 494,000 metric tonnes of humanitarian food supplies, with more expected over the next month. In addition, some 163,000 metric tonnes of food stuffs, as well as medical and other humanitarian supplies, had reached Habur/Zakho, on the border with Turkey, and Trebil, on the border with Jordan.

New measures intended to facilitate a smoother process for approval of contracts for humanitarian supplies to Iraq were adopted on 14 May by the Committee established by Council resolution 661 (1990). As of 23 May, a cumulative total of 292 humanitarian contracts out of 536 submitted had been approved. Of the remaining applications, 11 were blocked, 203 put on hold and 30 were pending approval. Fifty-one oil sales contracts have been approved so far, with proceeds by the end of the previous week totalling $1.5 billion.

Flights to Jeddah for Hajj done 'without consultation'

In a statement read out by its President, Antonio Monteiro of Portugal, the Council of 16 April said the Iraqi aircraft that flew from Baghdad to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 9 April had done so "without specific consultation" with the Security Council Committee established under resolution 661 (1990) to monitor sanctions against Iraq.

On 3 February, the Government of Iraq had requested clearance from the Committee for the release of $50 million from frozen Iraqi assets being held in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to cover pilgrimage costs, and requested the Committee's agreement for flights by Iraqi Airways to transport pilgrims to Jeddah during the holy pilgrimage season. The Committee responded on 3 March that it would be in a better position to consider the release of the funds if the request were to be submitted by a country willing to release the funds in question. The Government then proceeded with the flight without specific consultation with the Committee.