Breaking News: Iraq Opposes U.N. Weapons Inspectors' Return, Says Bush Speech Was Full of Lies
KLP Note: Hi Hawk...Guess this gives Iraq's answer to the UN as well as the US...
Sep 13, 2002
Iraq Opposes U.N. Weapons Inspectors' Return, Says Bush Speech Was Full of Lies
By Sameer N. Yacoub
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A top Iraqi official said Baghdad opposes the return of U.N. weapons inspectors and President Bush's speech to the United Nations was "full of lies."
"We do not accept Bush's conditions," Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said in an interview in Baghdad that was broadcast Friday.
"The unconditional return of the inspectors will not solve the problem," Aziz said in the interview with the Saudi-owned MBC television network. The interview was conducted Thursday.
At the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, Bush said America would work with other nations on a U.N. resolution demanding Iraq surrender weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them.
"We hope it (the attack) is not inevitable, but we are preparing for the worst scenario," Aziz said in the interview, monitored by The Associated Press in Cairo. "We don't want malice, and if there is a reasonable way that will prevent the malice, we will deal with it."
Late Thursday, Aziz told reporters in Baghdad that "Bush's speech (to the United Nations) was full of lies and fabrications."
U.N. Security Council resolutions passed after the 1991 Gulf War say Iraq must eliminate weapons of mass destruction, and the means to produce them, and that the U.N. sanctions on Iraq cannot be lifted until it has done so.
Iraq has refused access to U.N. weapons inspectors since 1998 and claims it has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and fulfilled the other requirements of the Gulf War resolutions.
AP-ES-09-13-02 1324EDT
This story can be found at: ap.tbo.com |
