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Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanovhas told US Secretary of State Colin Powell the necessity of resolving the problem of Iraq with political-diplomatic methods, based on relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Russian Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued Tuesday, said that during a telephone conversation on Monday, Ivanov confirmed Russia's principled support for a speedy return of international inspectors and resumption of their full-scale operations in Iraq.
Powell spoke "in detail about the results of Washington's talkswith the chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency Secretary General Mohamed El Baradei," the statement reads.
Powell and Blix agreed last Friday that that UN weapons inspectors should not return to Baghdad until a new UN resolution was passed. Russia, which is one of five permanent UN Security Council members with veto power, opposes the new resolution, but in the meantime, it said Russia is ready to accept it conditionally.
(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2002)
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