13 May 1999

His Excellency Dr. Saeed Hasan
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of Iraq
to the United Nations

Excellency,

On behalf of the Secretary-General, I would like to acknowledge receipt, under cover of note verbale 10/MT/25/93177 dated 1 April 1999 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, the revised Part Seven of the Executive Summary of the distribution plan, together with annex VII to the plan, concerning telecommunications requirements, for the period specified in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1210 (1998) of 24 November 1998.

In this respect, I have the honour to inform you that I have been authorized by the Secretary-General to convey the following.

Having examined the revised telecommunications requirements submitted by your Government, the Secretary-General has concluded that the revised plan concerning telecommunications, if properly implemented, should enhance the implementation of the humanitarian programme throughout the country. The revised plan is, therefore, approved with the following understandings.

In regard to the budgetary allocation, while this is endorsed for the purpose of planning, it may be necessary to limit expenditure in light of the final revenue generated during the current phase, and in accordance with the priorities established by relevant resolutions of the Security Council, as well as the priorities indicated in the approved distribution plan of 11 December 1998 (S/1998/1158).

The implementation of the revised plan for telecommunications is governed by the relevant Security Council resolutions 986 (1995) and 1210 (1998), and the Memorandum of Understanding concluded on 20 May 1996 between the United Nations Secretariat and the Government of Iraq (S/1996/356). In case of inconsistency between the particular provisions of the revised plan on the one hand, and the relevant resolutions and the Memorandum of Understanding on the other, the provisions of the latter documents shall prevail.

The approval of the revised plan for telecommunications requirements is without prejudice to actions that might be taken by the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) regarding applications for export of particular items contained on the list submitted for the Committee=s consideration, in accordance with its procedures.

The joint unit established by resolution 1051 (1996) will continue to review the categorized list, in the light of additional information that may become available, for the purpose of identifying items that are subject to monitoring because of their possible dual use for civilian and prohibited purposes under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) of 3 April 1991, and other relevant resolutions.

Finally, I should like to welcome the statement in paragraph 10 of the revised Part Seven of the Executive Summary, that in accordance with paragraph 41 of the Memorandum of Understanding, the Government of Iraq shall provide us with detailed information about the delivery of supplies and equipment to their locations, in order to facilitate the monitoring of their use pursuant to paragraph 8 of annex I of the Memorandum of Understanding.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

(signed)

Benon V. Sevan
Executive Director