Iraq and the new UN inspection team

The new UN agency for weapon's inspection in Iraq has started to train 44 inspectors from 19 countries who can be sent to Baghdad after the training, if the Iraqi government will allow them to enter Iraq, once again.

The spokesman for this new agency Ion Bukana said that the training course started last Tuesday will last four weeks and covers lectures on legal, administrative, political civilization measures (safety measure in protection of monuments upon searching for weapons) as well as security measures in case the inspectors discover dangerous weapons.

The spokesman added that these possible inspectors will be then divided into smaller groups to study any banned weapons Iraq may have. These include self-propelled long-range artillery, chemical, and biological weapons.

Almost half of the members of the group will be appointed by the UN committee for monitoring, verification and inspection which had replaced the special UN committee whose inspectors left Iraq in December 1998 on the eve of the US- British attacks against Iraq.

The spokesman added that the remaining inspectors will be ready to start their mission should Iraq permits them to enter it once again.