Iraqi Delegation Leaves for N.Y.
An Iraqi delegation left Amman on Sunday for talks at U.N. headquarters in New York after the U.S. government offered to provide security escorts, an Iraqi Embassy spokesman said.
The Iraqis had balked at the trip on Saturday when their government charged that the Americans had “abandoned their responsibilities to provide protection.”
The delegation is to discuss Iraqi weapons control and U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq’s August, 1990, invasion of Kuwait. It is led by Gen. Amer Rasheed, head of Iraq’s military industrialization commission.
At midday Sunday, Rasheed’s team boarded a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight for New York, Iraqi Embassy spokesman Adel Ibrahim said.
He said U.S. authorities “agreed to provide the team with security escorts as is customary for all official delegates visiting the U.S.”
There was no immediate U.S. confirmation of Ibrahim’s account.
The technical team is scheduled to meet U.N. officials on Tuesday to discuss long-term monitoring of Iraqi weapons sites.
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