Stardate 20030227.1541

(On Screen): The government of Iraq has announced that it agrees "in principle" to destroy its Al Samoud 2 missiles, as ordered by Blix and UNMOVIC. But before doing so they want a technical mission to come and talk it over.

Which is to say that they expect to need the things soon, and don't really want to give them up, but also don't actually want to be on record refusing to destroy them in the days prior to an important vote in the UNSC. So they are applying Parkinson's Second Law ("Delay is the deadliest form of denial") and saying later instead of no.