§ Mr. Stephen TwiggTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the number of Scud missiles held by Iraq. [68750]
§ Mr. George RobertsonI have been asked to reply.
The UN Special Commission on Iraq believes it has accounted for all but two of Iraq's 819 Soviet origin SCUDs and all declared launch vehicles. However, owing to the indigenous production of components and uncertainties attending the verification of the destruction of complete missiles, it is possible that Iraq has concealed a small number of 650km range SCUD type missiles. It is also possible that components were removed from missiles that were unilaterally destroyed.