Dear UN: Come back, please. All is forgiven
Iraq Requests Return of UN Nuclear Inspectors
Tue Jul 20, 2004 02:11 PM ET
By Amil Khan
CAIRO (Reuters) - Iraq has asked the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to send inspectors to conduct an inventory of the country's nuclear material, and the agency's head said U.N. arms experts should also return to finish their job.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said inspectors charged with the task of verifying the status of Iraq's nuclear material would return to Baghdad soon.
"We received an official request from (Iraqi Foreign Minister) Hoshiyar Zebari for the return of international inspectors in the coming days," ElBaradei told reporters after arriving at Cairo airport.
Unlike their pre-war counterparts, these inspectors will not be searching for signs of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq.
Instead, they will be performing a routine task that even Iraq's ousted President Saddam Hussein allowed the U.N. agency to carry out after barring U.N. weapons inspectors from Iraq in the wake of U.S. and British bombing raids in December 1998.
The IAEA said it hoped it would be a step toward a resumption of full inspections.
