Iraq Pledges Readiness to Hold Talks with UN 'Unconditionally'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 02, 2002

Iraq Pledges Readiness to Hold Talks with UN 'Unconditionally'

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Iraq on Thursday expressed that it is ready to "unconditionally" continue its talks with the United Nations on the implementation of UN Resolutions while the United States and Britain are launching an anti-Iraq campaign.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan made the remarks in an interview with the Iraq Satellite Channel, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

He said he believed that the dialogues based on the spirit of UNResolutions would be the best way to ensure the implementation of the UN Resolutions.

Iraq still hopes the talks would go on, although the 19 questions presented by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in their talks last March have not been answered, he added.

The United Nations and Iraq have held three rounds of dialogue this year so far, but failed to reach any agreement on the returning of UN arms inspectors to Iraq.

The arms inspectors, who were commissioned to verify that Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction, left Iraq on the eve of the US-British "Operation Desert Fox" airstrikes against Baghdad in December 1998 and have since not been allowed back.

Ramadan insisted that Iraq has already dismantled its weapons ofmass destruction -- nuclear, chemical and biological -- and supports the idea of a Middle East free of these weapons.

He accused the United States of taking a "terrorist" attitude ininterfering Iraq's internal affairs.

US President George W. Bush has branded Iraq as part of an "axisof evil," along with Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and accused them of pursuing weapons of mass destruction andsupporting terrorism.

He has repeatedly vowed to achieve a "regime change" in Iraq with all the tools at his disposal, including military actions.

"We'll use all tools at our disposal to do so (topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein)," Bush said at a press conference in the White House last month, reiterating the official US policy aimed atending Saddam's rule in Iraq.

Ramadan also criticize British Prime Minister Tony Blair for spreading rumors that Iraq is pursuing weapons of mass destruction,saying Blair can as well send a fact-finding team to Iraq to prove his allegation.

Blair, a close ally of Bush, warned last month that Saddam's weapons program constitutes a "gathering threat" and preemptive measures should be taken to counter it.

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