Aim of Arms Inspections Is to Spy on Iraq: Daily

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 05, 2002

Aim of Arms Inspections Is to Spy on Iraq: Daily

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The aim behind the arms inspections is to spy on Iraq and fabricate pretexts and crises to strike the Iraqi people and keep the embargo in place, Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of Iraq's ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, said in an editorial on Tuesday.

The editorial accused the now defunct United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) of "spying" and gathering information for the interests of the United States and Israel.

Moreover, "These inspection teams ... encroached on Iraq's sovereignty when they used to suddenly break in any institutions and inspect them in a police style," the editorial said.

Iraq's apparent defiance on arms inspections came ahead Thursday's dialog between Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmed and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said on Monday that Iraq hopes the upcoming dialog with Annan will lead to the lifting of the embargo, imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Ramadan also stressed the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 687, which aims at freeing the Mideast region of weapons of mass destruction.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmed, who left Baghdad on Monday for New York to talk with Annan, said before departure that he will press the U.N. chief for lifting the embargo and halting the U.S.-British air raids on Iraq.

Iraq has been subject to repeated U.S. and British air strikes in the two no-fly zones in its northern and southern parts since the 1991 Gulf War.

The embargo on Iraq will not be lifted until U.N. arms inspectors certify that Iraq has been rid of weapons of mass destruction.

However, Annan has said he wants the dialog to focus on implementing U.N resolutions concerning Iraq and allowing the arms inspectors back to Iraq.

Iraq has so far defied U.S. pressure by rejecting the return of the arms inspections, who withdrew from Iraq on the eve of U.S.- British air war on Baghdad in December 1998.

U.S. President George W. Bush has warned the Iraqi regime to allow arms inspectors back or face the possibility of fresh U.S. military attacks.

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