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Politics : Attack Iraq? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrLucky who wrote (3570)	2/1/2003 8:40:54 PM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8683

Baghdad warns of suicide attacks if US attacks Iraq February 2 2003 Iraq's supporters will launch suicide attacks on US targets if Washington attacks Baghdad, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan warned in an interview to be published in the German weekly Der Spiegel on Monday. "Martyrs and suicide attackers are our new weapon and they will not just intervene in Iraq. "The Arab people will help the Iraqi people in their fight for independence and freedom. The whole region will be set ablaze," Ramadan predicted. "This part of the world will become a sea of resistance and danger for the Americans. It will be much worse for them than anything that has happened so far, especially in places where American military are stationed, that is to say, in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait," he warned. Ramadan reiterated Baghdad's pledge to cooperate with UN arms inspectors seeking evidence of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq to avoid a US attack that would "cause much suffering and loss on both sides", he said. "But if it comes to an attack Iraq will, I hope, become the spark that will free the world from American hegemony," he said. "The day will come when Europe will no longer be prepared to tolerate America's hegemonic ambitions." Ramadan rebuffed US accusations that the Iraqi regime had links with the extremist Islamic al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, which the United States blames for the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. "That's laughable. Our secular (ruling) Baath party and al-Qaeda are worlds apart. We've never had anything to do with Islamists and certainly not terrorists like that scoundrel bin Laden," he said. He said that Iraq had never had official relations with bin Laden's protectors, Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, contrary to the practice followed by US allies Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Ramadan said oil-rich Iraq would defend itself against a US-led military attack by all methods "authorised by international conventions and the United Nations Charter". He rejected US allegations that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction. "Iraq hasn't had any for a long time ... we are no longer working on a nuclear program. Ask Mohamed ElBaradei," he said, in reference to the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Ramadan also dismissed rumours that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might go into exile voluntarily if US troops occupied Baghdad. "This is nonsense spread by the American secret services. It's ridiculous and absurd. But they don't know how to do anything other than invent stories. It was already like that in 1991," he said, in reference to the Gulf war. smh.com.au