THE government would not object to facilitating interviews of Iraqi scientists by the United Nations Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported yesterday.
Quoting a high-ranking government source, CNA said: “There would not be any objection from the government” if Cyprus was approached to accommodate Iraqi scientists for a temporary period.
The source pointed out, however, that if the scientists and their families were to come to Cyprus, they would not be able to stay for a long period or permanently basis.
The source was commenting on a report by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post news service, which said the head of the UN inspectors, Hans Blix, and the Director of the International Atomic Energy Authority Mohammad El Baradei have been negotiating with the US government to convince a country neighbouring Iraq to provide facilities for the conduct of interviews of Iraqi scientists.
According to the news service, the country agreeing to host the scientists and their families would also be expected to provide the necessary security.
UNMOVIC spokesman Hiro Ueki told CNA that “we are still looking into the modalities of interviewing Iraqi scientists overseas”.
Apart from Cyprus, the UN was also looking into whether Jordan or Turkey were willing to take in 42 Iraqi scientists and their families.
Under the toughened UN inspections regime that resumed in November 27, inspectors can speak privately with scientists and workers associated with Iraqi weapons programmes and even take them abroad for interviews.
US officials have said they hope the privacy of such interviews would prompt scientists to reveal hidden weapons programmes.
UN inspections resumed a month ago four years after the last group of weapons inspectors left Iraq and US and British warplanes bombed Baghdad for failing to co-operate with UNMOVIC.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
