topic by
Gabriel
5/29/2002 (11:23) |
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CAIRO (Reuters) - A senior Pentagon official says that Iraq is hostile and aggressive enough to channel weapons of mass destruction into the hands of terrorists.
'We are focussed on (Iraq) because of the inherent danger of a regime that hostile and that aggressive possessing weapons of that type...and the support that that regime has provided to terrorist organisations,' U.S. Undersecretary of Defence Douglas Feith told a press briefing in Cairo on Wednesday.
'It is a strategic problem that there is risk that weapons that powerful could get into the hands of terrorists,' said Feith, who discussed the war on terror with Egypt's defence and foreign ministers earlier on Wednesday.
U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday refused to discuss any plans for a U.S. invasion of Iraq to overthrow President Saddam Hussein after reports that top American military commanders had argued against an imminent attack.
The New York Times and The Washington Post said last week that some military leaders had cautioned President George W. Bush and Rumsfeld to delay or abandon any attack on Iraq.
Bush has accused Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction and backing terrorism. Iraq denies the charges.
'The people who attacked the United States on September 11 would not have had any moral compunction about using weapons of mass destruction if they had possessed them,' said Feith, who was due to visit Israel later on Wednesday.
Feith refused to be drawn on possible disputes in the U.S. administration on whether to support the ouster of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who Bush has repeatedly blamed for failing to rein in Palestinian militants in a 20-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation.
'President Bush has been stressing how important it is that there develop a (Palestinian) leadership that makes progress towards peace possible,' Feith said, adding: 'I'm sure (U.S. envoy William) Burns will be exploring this while he's here'.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns was due to hold talks in Cairo on Wednesday amid heated international efforts to defuse Arab-Israeli tensions and arrange regional peace talks.
Burns, who is one of several foreign officials expected to visit Cairo for Middle East talks this week, is in Egypt at the start of a regional tour and ahead of a U.S.-Egyptian summit next month -- the second in three months.
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