Moscow, Feb 26: Hailing Baghdad's active co-operation with the UN weapons inspectors, Russia today urged Iraq to scrap its missiles banned under the UN resolutions. "Now very much depends on Iraq and we are continuing to work with the Iraqi leadership, urging maximum cooperation with Unmovic -the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Andrei Granovsky, director of the Russian foreign ministry's department for international organisations, was quoted as saying by Interfax. "Baghdad has also sent Hans Blix, chief of the UN monitoring verification and inspection commission, three letters on the discovery during excavation work of components of R-400 warheads, about new information on anthrax and about the investigation concerning 122-millimetre shells and chemical warheads fitted for them," he said pointing at Iraq's active co-operation with the weapons inspectors.
"We hope that within the next few days Iraq will make further useful steps, and from march one would start eliminating al samoud-2 warheads, whose range exceeds the established 150 kilometres," he said.


He pointed out that Baghdad itself had informed Unmovic about the discovery of these missiles in order to close its missile dossier as soon as possible.
Iraq has also given international inspectors a list of the experts who participated in Baghdad's unilateral elimination of chemical and bacteriological weapons and missiles in 1991, Granovsky said.

Bureau Report