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Amid US threats for a regime change in Iraq, the UN Security Council reviewed for the first time yesterday Iraq's invitation for technical talks in Baghdad with the UN weapons experts.
Iraq insists that chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix go to Baghdad to discuss all pending issues on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, a key to suspending UN sanctions imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
But Blix has said repeatedly that a 1999 Security Council resolution prevented him from analyzing arms data until the inspectors are back on the ground to determine what happened since they left in December 1998, on the eve of a US-British bombing raid. They have not been allowed to return since.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan intends to bring up a letter he received on Thursday from Iraq Foreign Minister Naji Sabri during a private meeting with the 15 UN Security Council members. But council sources said they did not expect a decision yesterday.
Sabri also hinted at the inspectors' return, saying the talks might form a "solid basis" for this step.
"As a subsidiary organ of the council, we take our instructions from them," Blix's spokesman, Ewen Buchanan, said.
US President George W. Bush said over the weekend that "nothing's changed" regarding the US determination to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein following Baghdad's offer.
In another development Iraq's speaker of parliament invited the US Congress yesterday to send a mission of congressmen and arms experts to Baghdad to investigate American allegations that Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile, US fighter jets yesterday attacked an air defense command and control facility in southern Iraq in response to attempts to shoot down American and British warplanes patrolling the area, the US military said.
It was the 25th strike of the year by U.S. and British attack jets in northern and southern "no-fly zones" of Iraq, established after the 1991 Gulf War to protect minorities in the country from attack by President Saddam Hussein's military.
(China Daily August 6, 2002)
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