Iraq's massive dossier detailing its weapons of mass destruction arrived Sunday night at the UN headquarters in New York to meet a deadline imposed by the UN Security Council.
Two copies of the 12,000-page document arrived Sunday night at 8:40 PM (0140 GMT Monday) from Frankfurt, Germany. Chief UN inspector Hans Blix met his staff on board the flight, who brought the documents out of Baghdad in two black suitcases.
Blix said that his staff "will immediately look at the materials."
The Iraqi declaration was turned over Saturday to the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, one day ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline set by the UN Security Council to give Iraq one last chance to fully account for its weapons of mass destruction or face "serious consequences."
The nuclear component of the declaration reached the Austrian capital of Vienna earlier Sunday, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based. The rest will be analyzed and sifted by UN inspectors in New York before being submitted to security council members.
Blix said he will meet with the security council on Tuesday on how to proceed with the bulky report. The chief inspector has said that council members agreed previously not to release sensitive part of the report for the protection of nuclear technology.
(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2002)
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