Written question asked by John Lyons (Labour) on Tuesday, 14 January 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 21 January 2003. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Tuesday, 21 January 2003 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, for what reason the report from Iraq on weapons of mass destruction was not presented in its entirety to the UN.

Answer: Mr. Lyons: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what reason the report from Iraq on weapons of mass destruction was not presented in its entirety to the UN. [91514] Mr. Rammell: Under relevant non-proliferation conventions, China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America are obliged to prevent the dissemination of information relating to the production of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. The President of the UN Security Council therefore decided that the full Iraqi declaration should only be given to these members of the Security Council, who also have the expertise to assess the risks of proliferation. His decision followed consultations with all members of the Security Council. The other members received the main body of the Declaration excluding a number of sensitive passages and words that were omitted by UNMOVIC and the IAEA who, after consulting the Security Council members with expertise to assess the risks of proliferation, judged them to contain information that might be of use to potential WMD proliferators.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 91514; 398 c226W;398 c223-4W
Session: 2002-03
Subjects: Chemical weapons Biological weapons Iraq Nuclear weapons Publications United Nations Weapons
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk