§ Lard Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the reports that they have given their general approval to attempts the US might make to destroy unlawful Iraqi nuclear materials and equipment by bombing are true; and, if so, what nuclear contamination they expect such bombing to cause, given that the weapons proposed for use are new, and cannot have been appropriately tested and nuclear contamination cannot be prevented.
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (The Earl of Caithness)Iraq has now admitted to operating, a major nuclear fuel cycle programme102WA outside IAEA safeguards, including uranium enrichment, involving the electromagnetic isotopic separation process, gas centrifuge and chemical methods of uranium enrichment.
It will be for the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN Special Commission to verify the substance of the latest statement from Iraq.