The head of a suspected weapons site in Iraq was tipped off to a "surprise" visit by UN arms inspectors, a spokesman for the arms inspectors in Baghdad admitted.
"He was informed the day before (Friday) that the team was coming to remove an air sampler and install a new one," Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), told AFP.
"Um al-Maarik Company, which the IAEA team visited today, 30 November, was notified by the IAEA team in advance that two of their technicians would review the status of the remaining video surveillance," he said Saturday.
The site is known to have been used previously to develop and build the Al-Hussein missile, an Iraqi version of the Scud.
Earlier, an Iraqi official who told journalists he had prior notice of a visit by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts.
A disarmament team spent three hours at the complex known as Um al-Maarik (Mother of All Battles).
In another development, a US military spokesman said the United States has deployed a state-of-the-art command center in the Gulf state of Qatar that could be used to direct large-scale military operations throughout the Gulf region.
Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani warned earlier Saturday that the threat of war still hung over Iraq despite the return of UN arms inspectors.
"I am unhappy to say that ... the danger of war still exists," he told reporters after talks with Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak.
"We hope that things unfold well," he said, adding he wished to see "the Iraqi people avoid any misfortune." (Albawaba.com)
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