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EQUIPMENT and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons have mysteriously disappeared from Iraq since last year’s US-led invasion, Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the UN Security Council on Monday.

The US and its allies cited Iraq’s failure to give inspectors full access to its weapons facilities as justification of their invasion in March 2003. Since then the US has barred UN inspectors from Iraq, and the US and the Iraqi interim government have failed to report to the UN the state of materials and facilities relevant to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, despite being obliged by international…

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