After years of controversy surrounding Iraq's programmes of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the UN body investigating and monitoring the country's disarmament was shut down on 29 June 2007. Under the relevant resolution adopted by a vote of 14 to none, the UN Security Council terminated the mandate of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), along with that of the UN nuclear watchdog for Iraq, the Iraq Nuclear Verification Office (INVO) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Dimitri Perricos, Acting Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC briefs the Security Council UN photo /Ryan Brown

The resolution submitted by the United Kingdom and the United States declared that the continued operations of UNMOVIC and INVO were no longer necessary since all of Iraq's known WMDs had been rendered harmless and the Government had declared its support for international non-proliferation regimes. In a letter annexed to the resolution, the Secretaries of State of the United States and the United Kingdom informed the Security Council that all appropriate steps had been taken to locate, secure, remove, disable or eliminate "weapons of mass destruction (WMD), ballistic missiles, and related delivery systems and programs in Iraq developed under the regime of Saddam Hussein". However, the Russian Federation, the one Member abstaining from the vote on the resolution, expressed concern that the closure prevented the monitoring bodies from issuing a definitive statement about the existence of WMDs in the country.

UNMOVIC was created in 1999 when it took over the mandate of the former UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) to verify and monitor Iraq's compliance with its obligation "not to use, develop, construct or acquire" WMDs. When UNSCOM was established in 1991, it was the first monitoring body of its kind, since no international verification regimes comprising on-site inspection existed at the time. The closing down of the Commission brings to an end 16 years of monitoring and verification, which in the words of UNMOVIC Acting Executive Chairman Demetrius Perricos showed that the United Nations "can implement successfully the activities demanded by the international community despite difficulties and frequently a lack of cooperation from the inspected party". He also underscored that the years of UN monitoring and verification provided irreplaceable technical expertise and inspection capability that could be useful in any future multilateral verification undertaking.

The abrupt closing down of the Commission left several disarmament issues unresolved. From 27 November 2002 to 17 March 2003, UNMOVIC inspected multiple locations, destroying or verifying the destruction of WMDs. Before its work was interrupted by the war in Iraq, UNMOVIC reported that it could not account for all of Iraq's chemical and biological materials , but had neither found evidence that Baghdad has resumed their production. Therefore, on 19 March 2003, a list of key remaining disarmament tasks was presented to the Security Council. Similarly, the IAEA monitoring office reported in 2003 that there was "no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons programme in Iraq". According to Gustavo Zlauvinen, a representative of the IAEA Director-General, a detailed assessment could have been produced within months, but the IAEA had not been able to carry out its mandate since 17 March 2003. That was the date when UN staff pulled out of Iraq before military operations began. In his last Council briefing, UNMOVIC Chairman Perricos noted that a number of outstanding issues could have been clarified with some additional activities, such as sampling, interviews, checking of documents in the possession of the United States Iraq Survey Group or even information from the coalition authorities. However, under the present circumstances, they cannot be resolved and thus contribute to the "residue of uncertainty".

Russian Federation abstains from Security Council vote to terminate the mandate of UNMOVIC UN photo/Ryan Brown

While the majority of Security Council members felt that UNMOVIC and INVO had become obsolete in view of the new political situation in Iraq, the Russian Federation noted the need for an official certification by the Commission that the Iraq file should be closed. Along with unresolved disarmament concerns and other issues, such as export controls and the supplies and non-destruction of certain weapons, Russian representative Vitaly Churkin held that a clear answer on the question of the existence of WMDs in Iraq was still lacking. Along similar lines, the representative of South Africa, though voting in favour of the resolution, maintained that the agencies should have been closed on the basis of a United Nations assessment. The Iraqi Government, on the other hand, welcomed the termination of both mandates, considering it a closure of an "appalling chapter" in Iraq's modern day history.