A portion of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's memoirs from Friday, February 14, 2003.

[Hans] Blix, [Chief UN Weapons Inspector] and [Mohamed] ElBaradei, [Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency], submitted their report on Iraq inspections to the Security Council today, offering no significant news beyond their previous report.

They described the information provided by the United States, including satellite imagery and audio recordings of Iraqi officers, as insufficient and unreliable. They added that through continued inspections, any existing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq could be eliminated. While the U.S. and the UK objected to the report, stating they would carry out their duties, Russia, China, France, Syria, and others welcomed it and called for the continuation of inspections. The implications of this report will become clear in the coming days.

Moments before the start of the [UN] Security Council meeting, the Iraqi government announced that it had issued a decree banning the production of any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. However, the United States immediately declared that this was a belated decision and would be of no benefit to Iraq.