According to AP, received via Salon.com News. Story is also at ABC News Online:

Iraq unconditionally accepted the return of U.N. weapons inspectors late Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

“I can confirm to you that I have received a letter from the Iraqi authorities conveying its decision to allow the return of inspectors without conditions to continue their work.”

On past form, I’d guess that there will be some subsequent attempts by the Iraqi government to weasel out of their commitments, but the fact that they have capitulated without even waiting for a resolution from the UN suggests that they have realised the futility of their position, and will not push these attempts far enough to cause real trouble. It’s early days, but the prospects for a peaceful outcome and the destruction of Saddam’s arsenal are suddenly looking good.

This is a big win for Bush, the UN, multilateralism and the world in general. The only real losers are Saddam on one side and the unilateralist “war party” in the US, notably represented by “warbloggers” such as Steven den Beste. These will have the choice between (A) jumping behind Bush and claiming that this was the outcome they wanted all along, or (B) continuing to hope for Iraqi noncompliance down the track. Judging by his early response, it looks like den Beste is going for Plan B, but I’d guess the majority will plump for A while hedging their bets as far as possible.

Update I did a quick surf around the main American warblogger sites and could find almost no reaction to this news. (Feel free to point out on my comments page the places I’ve missed). Apart from den Beste, most either ignored it or decided to sleep on it before responding. For example, AndrewSullivan writes
” WHAT MEANS ‘UNCONDITIONAL’? If I were Saddam, I’d start playing games now. What the administration needs are clear criteria for acceptable inspections – so that they are meaningful and real and permanent. Those criteria must be adhered to. Saddam cannot be allowed to wriggle out of this again. That’s all I can say based on a single sketchy AP story. Check in tomorrow for more.
– 7:33:15 PM”

As far as I can see, the possibility of Saddam caving in had not occurred to most of these guys. Hence their failure to respond to a move that I’ve been predicting (more precisely, pointing out as a possibility) ever since Bush’s UN speech.

The fallback assumption that Saddam will harass the weapons inspectors to the point that a US invasion can in the end be justified still has some plausibility, but it ultimately rests on the belief that he loves his weapons of mass destruction more than his life. My judgement is that Saddam is evil but not crazy. The weapons may have been potentially useful in the past, but they’re a liability now, and he’ll sacrifice them with no more compunction than the many family members he’s had put to death.