ABSTRACT
Resolution 687 assigned the task of dealing with nuclear questions to the Director General of the IAEA-nota bene, the Director General and not the Agency itself. This was clearly done with the aim of limiting the possible influence of the multinational IAEA Board of Governors on the inspection operations in Iraq. Furthermore the task had to be carried out with the ‘assistance and cooperation of the Special Commission’. The ‘immediate on-site inspections’ were to be conducted not only at sites which were already known to the IAEA or declared by Iraq, but also according to the ‘designation of any additional locations by the Special Commission’. The promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy has always been one of the raisons of the IAEA, therefore some pointed out that it was inconsistent to assign the Agency to police the dismantling of Iraq’s nuclear capacities. In fact, the Agency later even had to turn Iraq into the first legally defined nuclear-free zone.
