BAGHDAD, 25 November 2002 — World powers France, Russia and China urged Iraq to comply with UN weapons inspections ahead of the start on Wednesday of an 18-strong team’s make-or-break search for weapons of mass destruction as Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said the United States was seeking pretext for war.
Washington is seeking to use the declaration that Baghdad is due to present concerning its alleged weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for military action, Naji Sabri said yesterday.
In a 19-page letter to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, released yesterday, Sabri declared that the resolution contains traps for his country.
Paragraph 4 of the new resolution, sponsored by the US, states that “ false statements or omissions” in Iraq’s stipulated declaration of its alleged chemical, biological and nuclear program, due Dec. 8, may lead to the finding that Baghdad is responsible for a “material breach” of the conditions.
Sabri said the clauses related to the arms declaration that Baghdad is asked to hand over by Dec. 8 aims at “distorting the position of Iraq and using the (declaration) to launch an aggression against Iraq.”
“Considering any omission by Iraq as a material breach means that there is premeditation in targeting Iraq, under any futile justification,” he said.
“This is based on the imaginary presumption that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” he charged, adding that “Iraq has forcefully rejected such allegation and the United States and Britain did not present a single proof to back it up.” Under the resolution, Baghdad is to supply full details of its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs to the UN by Dec. 8. It has consistently denied developing such weapons, prompting US President George W. Bush to say that “lying” would lay it open to military action.
Meanwhile, a US news magazine reported that a consensus was forming within the Bush administration on how to govern Iraq in the event of a successful US military campaign against Baghdad.
