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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (74576)	2/16/2003 12:38:54 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

>>Rome mayor snubs Aziz after anti-Israel comment Reuters \| 2/16/03 \| Reporting by Luke Baker ROME, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The mayor of Rome snubbed Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz on Sunday, cancelling their scheduled meeting after Aziz refused to answer a question from an Israeli journalist at a news conference. Mayor Walter Veltroni, who was due to meet Aziz on Sunday morning before the Iraqi left Italy to return to Baghdad, delivered the news in a stern letter. "I'm writing to inform you that I find myself obliged to cancel our meeting," Veltroni wrote, according to a copy of the letter sent to Reuters. "The reason is because of your refusal to answer a question posed to you by an Israeli journalist at a news conference held at the Foreign Press Association (on Friday)," it continued. "Rome, Mr deputy prime minister, has always had absolute respect for dialogue and the civil exchange of ideas, not to mention, obviously, freedom of opinion and free access to information," the centre-left mayor wrote. "I cannot accept that a public figure like yourself, the representative of another country, can set a veto and discriminate against someone, denying them the right to express themselves, no matter what position they may represent." Aziz came to Italy last Thursday and during a busy four-day stay held a high-profile meeting with Pope John Paul at the Vatican and prayed at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi on the same day that millions around the world marched for peace. It was on Friday, after his meeting with the pope, that Aziz gave a news conference at the Foreign Press Association. For more than half an hour, he took questions from more than a dozen journalists and gave fairly full answers. But when a correspondent for Israeli newspaper Maariv stood up and asked whether, in the case of war, Iraq intended to attack Israel, Aziz responded: "When I came to this press conference, it was not in my agenda to answer questions by the Israeli media. Sorry." The response drew boos and hisses from some journalists and several walked out. Later, another journalist asked the same question and Aziz answered: "We don't have the means to attack anyone outside our territory." Veltroni closed his letter saying that if Iraq and its representatives could not adhere to the principles of liberty and democracy, "there can be no hope for your country, nor for a solution to the crisis in the Middle East, nor for the prospect of a more just and peaceful world". ((Reporting by Luke Baker,<< reuters.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (74576)	2/16/2003 3:18:56 PM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Respond to of 281500

>> 1. While polarized Security Council members continue to argue the pros and cons of America’s demand to disarm Saddam Hussein by force, US Marines and special forces, supported by British and Jordanian commandos, have pretty much completed the conquest of western Iraq where some of Saddam’s forbidden weapons were known to be stationed. << I have some problems with this statement. If we control the area, we should have control of the weapons too. If we don't have control of the weapons, we took the area but allowed the weapons to be withdrawn. That doesn't make sense. Unless we waited to take control of the area until after the weapons were withdrawn. But that doesn't make sense either. If we actually have control of any of these weapons, then now we are at the point where we need to say so and produce them. I'm real uncomfortable with the math in this statement. It doesn't add up. Perhaps it was just carelessly written?