DUBAI, 21 December 2002 — US charges that Iraq is in “material breach” of its UN weapons obligations mean that Iraq continues to face the threat of US attack despite cooperating with arms inspectors, Gulf newspapers said yesterday.
“Baghdad is cooperating (with the United Nations) to avert the war which the United States is threatening to wage against the region, and we cannot ask Iraq to declare arms programs that don’t exist,” said Qatar’s Al-Raya.
“The fact that Washington and London are asking Iraq to provide more (information about its weapons capabilities) means that these two countries are seeking to escalate the conflict,” the paper said, accusing Washington of trying to contrive a “pretext for war.”
Ash-Sharq, another Qatari daily, charged that if the United States and Britain attacked Iraq, they would be doing so not in order to disarm Baghdad but in a quest to “seize its riches, particularly oil.”
“Washington and London have yet to come up with a single piece of evidence to back their claims against Iraq,” it said.
Saudi daily Al-Jazirah said war would continue to loom until Iraq filled the gaps in its arms declaration to the UN.
However, the paper noted, “many countries, including some of those that have stated their readiness to take part in a (military) operation against Iraq, have commended Baghdad’s cooperation with UN arms inspectors, arguing that this would help plug holes in its weapons declaration” and thereby avert war.
The United States declared on Thursday that Iraq was in “material breach” of its weapons obligations, and Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that the world would not wait forever for Baghdad to disarm. (AFP)
