BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON — Baghdad and Washington continued their war of words yesterday as the prospect of real fighting got the cold shoulder from Turkey, home to strategic US air bases.
Turkey said it was not convinced by US allegations that Iraq holds weapons of mass destruction and said it wanted UN approval for war before any action against Baghdad.
“The report of the UN inspectors on weapons of mass destruction is important to us,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party.
Turkey is facing intense pressure from Washington to provide support for a possible operation to topple the regime in Baghdad.
In Ankara, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman and Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor kicked off talks with Turkish officials yesterday on an economic aid package, in a bid to allay Turkish concerns. Press reports said Ankara was seeking some $28 billion in compensation for estimated damages a war would cause to its vital economic sectors.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi scientist gave UN arms inspectors details of a military program that is under review as possibly being linked to a clandestine nuclear program, inspectors’ spokesman Hiro Ueki said.
In his daily statement on inspections, Ueki said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had interviewed a “metallurgist from a high-visibility state company.”
“He provided technical details of a military program. This program has attracted considerable attention as a possible prelude to a clandestine nuclear program. The answers will be of great use in completing the IAEA assessment.”
As United Nations inspections entered their second month, Iraq gave a first tentative approval for its weapons scientists to leave the country to be interviewed — a key United States demand if the war that seems increasingly inevitable is yet to be averted.
Baghdad says it will provide the UN by Sunday with a list of ‘hundreds’ of scientists, technicians and experts who have worked on the country’s biological, chemical, missile and nuclear programs. But although it would be up to the individuals in question to accept “on a personal basis,” the Iraqi government seemed to indicate they should not comply, saying that it “was not necessary” for them to travel abroad.
In Cairo, US Ambassador David Welch said yesterday the United States is ready to strike Iraq and disarm it without UN Security Council authorization “if necessary”, but prefers a “multilateral” approach.
His comments came as UN refugee chief warned a war with Iraq, with biological or chemical agents possibly unleashed, will be a human calamity. Ruud Lubbers, the UNHCR chief, in a BBC interview raised the specter that bacteriological or chemical weapons could be used in a conflict and said: “Believe me, it will be a disaster from a humanitarian perspective.” (The Independent)
