---

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Answer

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs who made the decision that the United States should be (a) in charge of the translation and distribution of and (b) given permission to edit the Iraqi dossier to the United Nations of its weapons of mass destruction capacity. [87414] Mr. MacShane: The President of the UN Security Council decided that the Iraqi Declaration should first be given to members of the Security Council with the expertise to assess the risks of proliferation: China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. His decision followed consultations with all other members of the Security Council. It is open to these five states to pass on any concerns they have about the risks of proliferation to UNMOVIC and the IAEA. But UNMOVIC and the IAEA alone will judge what material needs to be excised before it distributes the Declaration. UNMOVIC will distribute the version of the Declaration that will be given to all members of Security Council. And UNMOVIC, not the United States, is in charge of translation of the Declaration.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

87414; 396 c763W;396 c762W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Chemical weapons Biological weapons Defence equipment Distribution Iraq Nuclear weapons Publications United Nations Weapons USA Translation services

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk