Iraqi FM Defies US War Threat Against Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Iraqi FM Defies US War Threat Against Iraq

Visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on Tuesday defied intensifying US war threat against his country, hailing a mounting opposition to the US intimidation.

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Visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on Tuesday defied intensifying US war threat against his country, hailing a mounting opposition to the US intimidation.

"The international community refuses the law of the jungle pursued by extremists and Zionists in the US administration," Sabritold reporters after his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher.

Asked about whether Iraq will allow UN arms inspectors in, Sabrisaid the return of inspectors is part of UN Security Council resolutions, and Iraq calls for implementing these resolutions."

Sabri arrived here from Russia earlier in the day for a meeting of Arab foreign ministers to be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

In early August, Sabri sent a letter to UN chief Kofi Annan, inviting the chief UN weapons inspector to Baghdad for technical talks.

The letter said Hans Blix, executive chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, and his expertswere welcome to discuss outstanding disarmament issues "to establish a solid basis for the next stage of monitoring and inspection activities and to move forward to that stage."

The UN inspectors left Iraq in December 1998 on the eve of a US-British bombing campaign to punish Baghdad for not cooperating withthe arms experts.

The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iraq since its 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait.

Under UN Security Council resolutions, sanctions can only be lifted when inspectors certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed.

However, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, who is in SouthAfrica for the Earth Summit, rejected a US call for the return of the inspectors earlier in the day.

"If the American allegations about Iraq's so-called weapons of mass destruction is a genuine concern, we are ready to work with the United States, with the Security Council to reach the truth, but if it is a pretext, a hoax pretext to attack Iraq, what can we do?" Aziz said.

The United States has accused Iraq of developing weapons of massdestruction to pose a threat to security of its neighboring countries, an allegation denied by Iraq.

Arab countries, Russia, China as well as some US allies in Europe have voiced opposition to a possible US attack on Iraq.

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