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Blix: Inspectors will go anywhere, anytimeAdvance team of U.N. inspectors to reach Baghdad on Monday
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Hans Blix, head of a U.N. commission charged with "dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," spoke with reporters in New York on Friday as he prepared to set out on his mission to Baghdad -- where he is due to arrive Monday. Blix -- executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) -- is scheduled to leave New York for Paris, where he will meet with French government officials. He is expected to be in Larnaca, Cyprus, on Sunday, and is to meet with Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Blix will gather the 30-member team that's to make advance logistical preparations for the weapons inspections in Iraq, as spelled out in the Security Council Resolution 1441 that the United Nations passed last week. Prior to his scheduled departure, Blix held a U.N. news conference to offer some details about the planned searches. "There are very many installations, facilities which were visited in the past and where we do not have to ... bring a notification of inspection but if there's a new site where we haven't been before then there will have to be an authorization for inspection issued by me or on my authority," Blix said. "There's no restriction ... we can go anywhere, anytime -- at night or during holidays. We can do it at any time." ElBaradei said Iraq must provide "immediate, unfettered access to any location or site" and cooperate in every way with weapons inspectors, who are returning to Baghdad after a four-year absence. "It's an opportunity to cough up whatever they have left of weapons of mass destruction," ElBaradei told CNN.
"I think this will be a beginning for a path for Iraq to go back into being a full-fledged member of the international community, towards suspension of sanctions, towards a comprehensive settlement. This is an opportunity. It is an alternative to the use of force." The U.N. resolution requires Iraq to disclose its weapons of mass destruction arsenal to inspectors by December 8. Iraq announced Wednesday that it would "deal with" the U.N. resolution demanding that it allow weapons inspectors to return with unrestricted access and denied having any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. But the response left room for interpretation on whether Baghdad truly had accepted the latest U.N. call to disarm. The United States accuses the Baghdad government of possessing such weapons in violation of a cease-fire agreement it signed after the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Iraq has repeatedly denied possessing weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to approve the weapons-inspection resolution and gave Iraq a week to accept it.
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