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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (29516)	10/5/2003 12:46:53 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

"All Hail Discordia" Somethings come "out of the blue", others... Chirac fumes over claims that France sold missiles to Iraq By Philip Sherwell and Kim Willsher (Filed: 05/10/2003) An angry President Jacques Chirac of France yesterday forced the Polish government to withdraw claims that its troops had found four French anti-aircraft missiles, manufactured earlier this year, at a weapons dump in Iraq. Poland's defence ministry expressed "regret" last night over the reports, first made on Friday evening, that it had uncovered missiles which could only have been supplied to Iraq in breach of the United Nations weapons embargo. Polish soldiers work to uncover the Roland-type missiles which were discovered last week near Hilla However, the statement released in Warsaw did not assuage President Chirac's fury at suggestions that France may have supplied Saddam Hussein's regime with weapons in the months before the US-led invasion. "I believe that the Polish soldiers have created confusion that could have been avoided with thorough verification," he said. The controversy arose from the markings on the Roland-type missiles discovered last week near Hilla, south of Baghdad. In photographs released in Warsaw, the markings included the coding: 07-01 KND 2003. Polish forces apparently took this to indicate the date of manufacture, but France insisted that it has produced no Roland missiles since 1993. Defence officials said the significance of the code was not immediately clear, and a Pentagon official said the style of markings did not correspond to those usually used by France. Further investigation has been hampered as the Polish troops destroyed the missiles last week. It is standard procedure for former Iraqi ordnance to be blown up by Coalition forces. Mr Chirac is particularly prickly about accusations that French weaponry had reached Iraq as recently as this year, even if via a third country, as France has a poor reputation for selling arms to dubious regimes. At the European Union summit in Rome, Mr Chirac rejected the reports out of hand and said he had made his point "in a friendly but frank and firm way" during two meetings with Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller. The French Foreign Ministry has emphasised that France has not authorised the sale of weapons, or even spare parts, to Iraq since 1990. Additional reporting: Krzysztof Leski, Warsaw from telegraph.co.uk JMO lurqer Edit: For those interested, Poland and France are currently fueding also on the EU constitutional "problem". It's interesting how France and Poland can aford to have fueds now that Deutschland is more "tame".