BAGHDAD, 6 December 2002 — Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said yesterday he was ready to give UN inspectors a chance to disprove American allegations as President George W. Bush’s spokesman said US has a “solid basis” for charging Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
In his first public comment on the UN mission, the Iraqi president said monitoring should be allowed to continue as it presented an opportunity to disprove American claims that his regime possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Bush and top US officials “would not assert as plainly and bluntly as they have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction if it was not the truth and if they did not have a solid basis for saying it,” said Ari Fleischer.
Iraq insists that, since it has no such programs, it will merely be listing “dual use technology” that has peaceful as well as military applications. “...some might claim we didn’t give them (the inspectors) the proper chance to disprove the American allegations that Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction during the period of the inspectors’ absence,” Saddam said in remarks broadcast on Iraqi television.
“For that reason we shall provide them with such a chance, after which, if the weaklings remain weak and the cowardly remain cowards, then we shall take the stand that befits our people, principles and mission,” he told the Iraqi leadership as he congratulated them on Eid Al-Fitr.
The inspectors have reported nothing but cooperation from Iraq in their visits to 20 suspect sites since Nov. 27. So far, they have found nothing untoward.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday that an inaccurate declaration by Iraq on weapons of mass destruction this weekend under a UN deadline would not immediately trigger military action against President Saddam Hussein.
In another development, The UN Security Council extended the UN oil-for-food humanitarian program in Iraq for six months and agreed to review within 30 days a list of goods that Baghdad needs approval to import. (The Independent)
