US, UK want to shut down Iraq arms unit at UN soon (UNMOVIC) [View All]

US, UK want to shut down Iraq arms unit at UN soon
By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After years of debate, Britain and the United States hope the U.N. Security Council by the end of next week will shut down the U.N. weapons inspection unit for Iraq, once the stuff of front-page news.

With the U.S. failure after the 2003 invasion to find any weapons of mass destruction, a key reason for the war, diplomats argue there is little reason to keep alive the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC.

The resolution, still under discussion, would "terminate immediately" the mandate of UNMOVIC, once in charge of ridding Iraq of chemical and biological arms and long-range missiles. And the draft, obtained by Reuters, would also end the mandate in Iraq of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, in charge of nuclear arms.

UNMOVIC has a professional staff of 34 in New York from 19 countries, two Iraqi staff in Baghdad and a field office in Cyprus. It spends about $10 million a year of Iraq's oil money and the resolution orders all funds returned to Baghdad.