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France, United Kingdom Want to Convert UNMOVIC Into Permanent Inspection Agency
France and the United Kingdom want to convert the U.N. Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission, which searched for weapons of mass of destruction in Iraq prior to the war, into a permanent agency to investigate biological and missile programs, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 4). The two countries, aided by Canada, the European Union and Russia, are working on ways to convert the commission into a permanent international biological and missile inspection team, diplomats and U.N. officials said. One of the biggest challenges would be the issue of funding because the commission’s previous operations were funded by Iraqi oil money, according to AP. Any move to convert the commission into a permanent agency would first require U.N. Security Council approval, diplomats and U.N. officials said. While the United States currently opposes such a plan, diplomats and U.N. officials said, it is hoped that the Bush administration’s support could still be obtained. “We think the Iraq experience has helped Americans recognize the potential utility of having someone other than themselves do this kind of work,” said one senior Western diplomat. “The costs are high, the work is hard and even Congress has said the U.N. inspectors had some better intelligence than the CIA did,” the diplomat added (Dafna Linzer, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Nov. 25).
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