Vienna Talks: Press Briefing

1 October 2007

After the Vienna talks on 1 October, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC Hans Blix, and Dr. Amir Al Sadi, Special Advisor to the President of Iraq, briefed the press and responded to questions on key points.

Dr. ElBaradei highlighted a key outcome of the talks related to inspector access to sites.

"Under the existing mandate we have, we have now the assurances from the Iraqi side that we would have unrestricted, uninhibited, unconditional access to all sites in Iraq with the exception of the Presidential sites that are covered by the Memorandum of Understanding between the Security Council and the Government of Iraq. I think that that assurance is very important. That of course has to be tested when we go back to Iraq. We need to make sure that we are making full use of our rights. ( View clip)

He also cited the new information received from Iraq at the meetings, and the importance of verification. "The CDs contain all the information that Iraq has to provide us since 1998 and we have received the information today. We have to go through analyzing the information they give us, on all the items, proscribed items or dual use items and all changes in the different sites that have taken place since 1998. Obviously we need to analyze the information but more importantly we need to go back and verify the information." ( View clip )

Dr. Blix addressed the issue of past inspections in Iraq and the possible resumption of inspections under Security Council mandate. "I think that everybody recognizes that under the old inspection regime more weapons of mass destruction were destroyed than during the Gulf War. However, there were severe shortcomings. And there was not a full confidence that Iraq had done away with all its weapons of mass destruction and that is doubted by many parties still. And that is why many governments want to have inspection to seek a full assurance of that. ( View clip)

Dr. Al Sadi described the meetings' outcome. "We have come to a very practical arrangement that we would from our side anticipate every inspection to go to sensitive sites and we will take the measures that will cancel the need for waiting period and getting approvals."
( View clip)