§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the last United Nations weapons inspections in Iraq were made; and what assessment he has made of whether Iraq has acquired weapons of mass destruction. [28893]
§ Mr. BradshawThe last UN inspection team left Iraq on 13 December 1998. There have been no independent weapons inspections since then.
In the absence of any independent inspections, we cannot make any categorical assessment of current Iraqi capabilities. We do, however, judge that since 1999 Iraq has pressed ahead with its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.