topic by
barb
3/10/2002 (17:23) |
|
Iraq Says It Won't Allow Arms Inspectors to Return
By Hassan Hafidh
Reuters
BAGHDAD (March 10) - Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Sunday his country would not allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return.
''Iraq's rejection of the teams of spies to return back to Iraq is firm and won't change,'' Ramadan was quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency INA as saying, referring to the weapons inspectors.
''Iraq is fully convinced that there is no need for them (the inspectors) to return,'' Ramadan said. ''They had carried out vicious spying activities in Iraq for more than eight years.''
Ramadan's remarks came after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri ended a meeting in New York Thursday aimed at allowing the inspectors to return Iraq. Another meeting is set for April.
U.N. arms experts, searching for weapons of mass destruction, worked in Iraq several years before they left the country on the eve of U.S.-British bombing campaign in December 1998. They have not been allowed in since.
Late Saturday, Iraqi Deputy Premier Tareq Aziz said talks between Iraq and the United Nations should put as much importance on lifting sanctions and ending no-fly zones as on sending back weapons inspectors.
''Singling out the question of inspectors is wrong,'' Aziz told reporters.
''There are many items (the United Nations should discuss):
the sanctions, the no-fly zones and the continuous aggression and violation of international law by the United States and United Kingdom,'' Aziz said.
''All these matters should be addressed, not just one item. The focus is on one subject (the return of inspectors) as if it were the only concern.''
NO-FLY ZONES
The United States and Britain are enforcing no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, set up soon after the 1991 Gulf War to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Baghdad forces.
Sanctions were imposed on Iraq in August 1990 as punishment for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The United States wants U.N. inspectors to return to check if Baghdad is developing weapons of mass destruction.
Speculation is mounting that an Iraqi refusal could trigger a U.S. assault on Iraq aimed at toppling President Saddam Hussein.
Aziz told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper Sunday that the United Nations was not interested in weapons inspection but rather in overthrowing Saddam.
''The American president has made clear that the case of Iraq is not about the fight against terrorism and not about arms control,'' he said. ''In disregard for our sovereignty, he wants to eliminate the regime of President Saddam Hussein and create an armed opposition to fan a civil war.''
The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that the U.S. administration has told the Defense Department to prepare, on a contingency basis, plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries including Iraq.
Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS television the contingency report was not a precursor to imminent U.S. action but was simply ''sound, military conceptual planning.''
Reut13:02 03-10-02
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
|
|