Chief of UN weapons inspectors to stop in France and Cyprus en route to Iraq

The head of the United Nations commission charged with dismantling Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction will stop in France and Cyprus over the weekend before arriving in Baghdad on Monday, a UN spokesperson announced today.

Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), will leave New York tomorrow evening for Paris, where he will meet with French government officials.

Mr. Blix is expected to be in Larnaca, Cyprus, on Sunday, when he will meet with Mohammed ElBaradei, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and gather the advance team, comprised of some 30 people.

They will then travel to Iraq as scheduled on Monday.

In another development, the UN today released the text of a six-page letter from Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the return of weapons inspectors to the country, as demanded by Security Council resolution 1441.