July 28, 1999
Web posted at: 3:36 a.m. EDT (1936 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A United Nations disarmament team left Baghdad on Wednesday after destroying a controversial U.N. laboratory which contained small samples of VX nerve gas and other toxic materials, eyewitnesses said.

They said the team left their hotel in the Iraqi capital early in Wednesday morning heading to Jordan on a 1,000 km (600 mile) desert highway between Baghdad and Amman.

The U.N. disarmament experts had delayed their departure from Iraq for few days until the U.N. Security Council gave them the go-ahead to destroy seven vials of VX nerve gas.

The destruction of the deadly VX took place on Tuesday.

The VX was among the chemical and biological materials left behind when U.N. weapons inspectors pulled out of Iraq in mid-December on the eve of U.S. and British airstrikes.

Iraq banned the U.N. inspectors from returning. So the United Nations sent an independent team of four chemical experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and a biological expert to Baghdad to destroy, remove or neutralize the toxic material.

Underlying the dispute over VX is Russian and Chinese distrust of the U.N. Special Commission, which is charged with disarming Iraq. The Iraqi government has accused UNSCOM of spying, and Russia and China have demanded its abolition.

Iraq has admitted producing 3.9 tons of VX agent, but has denied loading the deadly agent into missile warheads. Last June, however, former UNSCOM chairman Richard Butler announced that VX was found on fragments of Iraqi missile warheads.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh said Tuesday's outcome bodes well for the council's future debate on a new policy to disarm Iraq.

"It became clear there was an overwhelming majority of the council that wanted to move ahead," Burleigh said.

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