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U.N. members get edited Iraqi reports
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council began receiving their edited version of the Iraqi weapons declaration Tuesday evening, more than a week after the United States and other permanent members got a full copy. The rotating council members agreed nearly 10 days ago to allow the five permanent countries -- the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain -- get the unedited, nearly 12,000-page document. After several days of studying the declaration and consulting with the five permanent members, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix prepared what he termed a "corenarrative," a document numbering about 3,500-pages, to distribute to the non-permanent countries. Among the recipients Tuesday was the representative of Syria, who repeated his nation's displeasure at not getting the entire, unedited declaration. "Frankly speaking, we would prefer to have the original copy like everybody else," said Fayssal Mekdad, the deputy Syrian ambassador to the United Nations. He said the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council "are equally responsible" and "deserve to be treated equally." Diplomats and U.N. officials said the shorter report lacked any information that might assist in the production of nuclear weapons. The names of companies that may have purposely or unwittingly sold Baghdad materials that were later used in weapons production were also deleted, diplomats and U.N. officials said. "It [editing the report] was a very fast operation, of course," Blix said. "And we have a limited number of people and they worked very, very hard over the weekend, and I am pleased they were able to do so." The nonpermanent members also are to receive an edited version of about 2,000 pages from the International Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear weapons issues in Iraq. The IAEA began distributing CD-ROM versions of the declaration at 1 p.m. EST, and was to provide hard copies later Tuesday evening. Even the sanitized versions of the documents will remain confidential, and not be released as a public U.N. document, diplomats said. Blix and IAEA Executive Director Mohammed ElBaradei are scheduled to brief the full Security Council behind closed doors Thursday morning. U.N. officials said they expect the two to discuss the status of current inspections in Iraq, as well as to give their initial assessment of the Iraqi declaration. U.N. officials said edited versions will be available Wednesday for the five nations who are to take Security Council seats on January 1. Angola, Chile, Germany, Pakistan and Spain will replace Mauritius, Ireland, Colombia, Singapore and Norway. The rotating members are chosen by the U.N. General Assembly for two-year terms.
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