The withdrawal of United Nations personnel from Iraq was completed, with workers that had been monitoring Iraqi oil exports evacuated with the full cooperation of the country's authorities, a UN spokesman said Wednesday.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told a press briefing that the world body has established a relief hub in Cyprus, and all UN staff has been relocated.
Arrangements were made for the workers to be evacuated from an oil platform at the port of Mina al Bakr via Iraqi tugboat. They were eventually taken to international waters and transferred to aUS ship, which took them to a port in the Persian Gulf, according to the spokesman.
Meanwhile, President of the UN Security Council Mamady Traore said Wednesday in a note that the council stood ready to consider,as soon as possible, proposals being prepared by Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan on how to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, taking into account the urgency of the humanitarian situation in the country.
(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2003)
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