(23 Sep 1998) English/Nat
Chemical weapons experts studying Iraqi warheads suspected of carrying deadly V-X gas are due to deliver their final results to the United Nations sometime this week.
Preliminary results by French and Swiss experts reportedly show no trace of the nerve gas - contrary earlier findings by the United States.
The Iraqi foreign minister has welcomed the new assessment.
Iraq's Foreign Minister, Mohammed Al-Sahas, spoke to reporters about the Swiss and French study on Tuesday.
Despite reports that the new briefing-paper allegedly supports Iraq's claims, he urged caution.
SOUNDBITE: English
"Well up to now informally we heard that the results are completely negative. Exactly that means it contradicts the so called results of the American laboratory. In any case I think all of us should wait for the final results."
SUPERCAPTION: Mohammed Al-Sahas, Iraqi Foreign Minister
Mohammed Al-Sahas said Iraq wants to cooperate with the United Nations weapons inspectors.
But he blamed certain people for trying to undermine a positive relationship between Iraq and UNSCOM.
Last month Iraq stopped further UN inspections for any banned weapons.
In return, the Security Council responded by dropping its regular review of the U-N trade sanctions.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Iraq's position is for fruitful cooperation according to the Security Council resolutions. What had happened between Iraq and UNSCOM and its present structure is that some of the people working in UNSCOM are trying to convert the fruitful cooperation to a futile process. This is what we protested against. Otherwise we had cooperated and it is in our benefit to cooperate in a fruitful way - not a vicious circle"
SUPERCAPTION: Mohammed Al-Sahas, Iraqi Foreign Minister
The findings of the report will be officially released later in the week.
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