Cyprus Expresses Willingness to Facilitate Interviews of Iraqi Scientists

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 30, 2002

Cyprus Expresses Willingness to Facilitate Interviews of Iraqi Scientists

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Cyprus has no problem to facilitate interviews of Iraqi scientists by the United Nations Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), local Sunday Mail newspaper quoted a senior government source as saying.

"There would not be any objection from the government" if Cypruswas approached to accommodate Iraqi scientists for a temporary period, the source said.

The source, however, pointed out that if the scientists and their families were to come to Cyprus, they would not be able to stay for a long period or on a permanent basis.

The source made the above remarks while commenting on US press reports that chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has been consulting with the US about the prospects of persuading a country near Iraq to provide a site for the conduct of interviews of Iraqi scientists.

The country which agrees to host the scientists and their families would also be expected to provide necessary security.

Apart from Cyprus, the United Nations was also looking into whether Jordan or Turkey are willing to take in 42 Iraqi scientistsand their families.

Iraq on Saturday handed over to UN arms inspectors a list of thenames of more than 500 Iraqi scientists who have participated in banned weapons programs, a UN official said.

The list is a key demand under the UN Resolution 1441 which aimed at forcing Iraq to prove that it has no weapons of mass destruction.

Under the UN inspections rules, inspectors can speak privately with scientists and workers associated with Iraqi weapons programs and even take them abroad for interviews.

UN arms experts resumed their inspections in Iraq to search for alleged weapons of mass destruction a months ago, four years after the last group of weapons inspectors left Iraq.

Currently there are 105 inspectors in Iraq, 99 of whom are from the UNMOVIC and six from the IAEA. They must give their first report to the UN Security Council about Iraq's weapons programs by a Jan. 27 deadline.

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