Iraq Says It Poses No Threat to Any Country

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, July 03, 2002

Iraq Says It Poses No Threat to Any Country

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Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said on Tuesday that Iraq poses no threat to any country in the Mideast region, dismissing claims by the United States that Iraq has been developing weapons of mass destruction, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

"None of the countries in the region has announced publicly thatIraq is posing any threat. Most of the countries in the region, if not all of them, refuse any hostile action against Iraq," Aziz saidin a letter to an international symposium held in Brussels, Belgium.

"This shows that the U.S. is making void allegations when it claims Iraq poses threats to countries in the region," he said.

Aziz dismissed U.S. claims that Iraq has been developing weaponsof mass destruction in the absence of United Nations arms inspectors, stressing that the United States has failed to present any evidence.

U.S. President George W. Bush has accused Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction, threatening possible U.S. military onslaught unless Baghdad allows the U.N. arms inspectors back.

U.N. arms inspectors left Iraq on the eve of joint U.S.-British military strikes in December 1998 and have been barred from returning since then.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to press Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmed to accept the resumption of arms inspections during their talks this week in Vienna. This is the third round of talks between the two sides since this year.

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