§ Mr. WinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the type and number of weapons destroyed by the United Nations inspection team in Iraq since the ending of the Gulf war; and what types of nerve gas and related items the inspectors believe to be still held by the Iraqi regime. [19687]
§ Mr. Tony Lloyd[holding answer 8 December 1997]: The UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) are able to account for 817 and 819 missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometres known to have been acquired by Iraq. 648W Forty-eight of these have been destroyed by UNSCOM. In addition, UNSCOM have been responsible for the destruction of 30 warheads, 690 tonnes of chemical weapons, 38,537 filled and empty munitions and more than 3,000 tonnes of precursor chemicals, as well as the main biological weapons production plant at Al Hakm, and large quantities of growth media. Further details can be found in the latest report by the Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, placed in the Library on 10 November 1997. UNSCOM have not published estimates of quantities of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) which may still be held by Iraq. Iraq has worked on a large number of agents including VX, Sarin, Botulinum toxin, Aflatoxin, and Anthrax. UNSCOM remain seriously concerned that they have not been able fully to account for Iraq's known imports and production of material for chemical and biological weapons, and that Iraq retains the expertise and capability to re-commence its WMD programmes at very short notice.