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Iraq's UN ambassador Mohammed al-Duri on Friday told reporters in Baghdad that Baghdad hopes to overcome any "misunderstandings" over its disarmament in talks with chief UN weapons inspectors this weekend.
"It is always a good thing for both sides to discuss issues and we are hoping that we can overcome, if there is any, differences or misunderstandings," Duri said.
Hans Blix, chief of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, were scheduled to meet with Iraqi officials in Baghdad on Jan. 19-20.
Duri said Iraq hopes the two sides can reach a "mutual understanding on all points" and Baghdad will respond to any questions the two chief inspectors might put forward although Iraq "has nothing to add."
Blix has said their key message will be that Iraq's arms declaration to the UN Security Council did not contain new evidence to verify its claim that its weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed.
Iraq submitted the 12,000-page dossier on its arms programs to the UN Security Council on Dec. 7 in a bid to prove its claims that there is no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The United States and Britain have indicated that Iraq's massive declaration contained "obvious omissions" and "holes," which may constitute a "material breach" of Iraq's obligations stipulated in the newly-adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
(Xinhua Mews Agency Jnauary 18, 2003)
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