Iraq Dismisses US Claims on Weapons of Mass Destruction

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 06, 2002

Iraq Dismisses US Claims on Weapons of Mass Destruction

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

An Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday dismissed U.S. charges that Iraq has been seeking weapons of mass destruction, saying it has fulfilled all disarmament commitments under relevant United Nations resolutions.

The unidentified spokesman told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the U.S. knew better than others that Iraq had fulfilled all its disarmament commitments and had cooperated with the now- defunct U.N. Special Committee as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from April 1991 to December 1998.

U.N. arms inspectors withdrew from Iraq in December 1998 before the U.S.-British military strikes against Baghdad for the alleged lack of cooperation with arms inspectors.

The spokesman said that from April 1991 to December 1998, 276 inspection teams, with a total of 3,845 inspectors from the U.N. Special Committee and the IAEA, made thousands of visits to Iraq to inspect the suspected sites.

Yet during the period of over seven years, "the inspectors did not present a single proof that Iraq concealed forbidden weapons or equipments," the spokesman said.

The spokesman accused the U.S. of making "haphazard" accusations against Iraq "to cover the criminal terrorist campaign by the Zionist entity (Israel) against the Palestinians."

U.S. President George W. Bush, in his first State of the Union address on January 29, singled out Iran, Iraq and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as "an axis of evil," accusing the three countries of seeking weapons of mass destruction and posing a grave and growing threat to peace.

Bush accused Iraq of continuing "to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror" and demanded President Saddam Hussein allow U.N. weapons inspectors back into Iraq.

Questions?Comments? Click here