Introduction

This chapter deals with Iraq’s nuclear file and the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It outlines the events which led to the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 687 in 1991 as a legal basis for the weapon inspections. It provide a short overview of the inspection years and plead the author case for limiting the research period to the years before United Nation (UN) and IAEA inspectors were banned from Iraq. The chapter explains the success or failure of nuclear inspections in Iraq and sub-questions which appeared as a result of the author research. He introduces his sources and concludes with an Arabic transcription problems. The chapter provides a chronological reconstruction and analysis of the IAEA inspection process in Iraq. The Iraq inspection history is also necessary to at least touch upon the history of UNSCOM, created by the Security Council to address Iraq’s missiles, biological and chemical weapons file.