A U.N. team prepared to leave for Iraq on Sunday to press ahead with the destruction of Iraq's huge arsenal of chemical weapons.
But the mission of a nuclear inspection team, which had also been scheduled to start Sunday, was delayed for logistical reasons, the United Nations said.The nuclear team will travel to Baghdad on Tuesday instead, said the Bahrain-based regional chief of the U.N. Special Commission, Alastair Livingston.
The Special Commission, headquartered in New York, supervises enforcement of the Security Council's gulf war cease-fire resolution passed a year ago. It stipulates that Iraq eliminate its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its long-range ballistic missiles.
The eight-member chemical team, led by Briton Ronald Manley, was to remain for eight days and discuss with the Iraqis the ongoing destruction of its massive arsenal of chemical weapons. Those weapons are mainly amassed at the Muthana facility, which was heavily bombarded in the gulf war, Livingston said.