Iraq Rejects US Threats, Calls for Dialog: Deputy PM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 10, 2001

Iraq Rejects US Threats, Calls for Dialog: Deputy PM

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said on Sunday that his country calls for dialog to resolve all the outstanding problems and rejects threats, aggression by the U.S. government.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said on Sunday that his country calls for dialog to resolve all the outstanding problems and rejects threats, aggression by the U.S. government.

Aziz made the remark during his meeting with Kathy Kelly, leader of the Voices in the Wilderness, an anti-embargo group in the U.S., the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

For her part, Kelly stressed the importance of lifting the embargo and expressed rejection of "the hostile campaign of the U. S. aimed at paving the way for a large-scale aggression against Iraq."

U.S. President George W. Bush has hinted possible military strikes against Baghdad if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein still blocks arms inspectors back into the country after a three-year absence.

Iraq has barred the arms inspectors from returning since the U. S. and Britain launched a four-day air strikes against it in December 1998.

The embargo, imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, will not be lifted until arms inspectors certify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.

The Voices in the Wilderness has organized over 20 trips to Iraq to show its solidarity with the Iraqi people and protest against the embargo.

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