MOSCOW, 27 December 2002 — Russia warned yesterday that a war on Iraq could distract the world’s attention away from the ongoing military campaign in Afghanistan and boost international terrorism.
“Switching the focus off Afghanistan and shifting it to Iraq may augment the threat of international terrorism which is coming from Afghan territories that are not under Kabul’s control,” Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov told the Itar-Tass news agency.
He reiterated Russia’s view that the international community currently had no proof of a link between the Iraqi regime and international terror organizations.
“No one can provide the slightest evidence” that Iraq represented a terrorist threat, Fedotov said.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi official said yesterday that three Iraqi civilians were killed and 16 wounded in an air raid by US and British warplanes on southern Iraq.
“Enemy warplanes bombed civilian installations in the provinces of Basra and Zi-Qar, and three Iraqi civilians were killed and sixteen others wounded in the attacks,” said a military spokesman.
The spokesman said anti-aircraft defenses opened fire on the attackers and that they fled back to their bases in Kuwait. Earlier, US Central Command said US and British aircraft attacked an air military communications facility in Iraq in retaliation for the downing of an US spy plane earlier this week.
Head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate Gen. Hossam Mohammad Amin said UN arms inspectors have found no proof to support US and British allegations that Iraq is harboring weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile, UN experts, pursuing the hunt for Iraq’s elusive weapons arsenal, interviewed yesterday the head of Baghdad’s Technology University.
It was the second reported meeting with Iraqi scientists since disarmament inspectors resumed their work here a month ago, but little detail about the interviews has emerged. “The inspectors asked me questions about the organization of our establishment, the names of teachers and the work of the university,” Mazen Mohammad told the satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.
“They also asked questions about our relations with the various universities and government bodies,” in Iraq. The interview began in his offices about 9 a.m and lasted about 100 minutes.
The inspectors had on Tuesday interviewed an Iraqi scientist privately for the first time since they resumed work on Nov. 27.
Sabah Abdel Nour, a professor at the technology university, had previously been linked to Iraq’s nuclear program.
In Britain, religious heads and leading opposition politicians expressed fear yesterday about any US-led strikes against Iraq, in messages aimed at Prime Minister Tony Blair. In a letter to the Times, Charles Kennedy, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, wrote: “To drift into a war without clear evidence of Iraq’s current involvement in constructing and deploying weapons of mass destruction, or of its deliberate non-compliance with the inspectors, would be to risk losing the support of the international community.”
Meanwhile, Syria, the only Arab member of the council, dismissed as “ridiculous” and “unfounded” accusations by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Iraq had transferred weapons of mass destruction to Syrian soil. Baghdad has rejected the Israeli claim as absolute lies. Arab League chief Amr Moussa also dismissed yesterday as “ridiculous” Israeli claims that Syria was hiding Iraqi biological and chemical weapons and accused the Jewish state of harboring weapons of mass destruction. (Agencies)
