Saddam Reiterates Iraq Has no Banned Weapons

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 18, 2002

Saddam Reiterates Iraq Has no Banned Weapons

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Saturday reiterated that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

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Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Saturday reiterated that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

Saddam made the remarks in a letter addressed to Iraqi National Assembly (parliament) just two days before UN arms inspectors are to be back here after four years of absence.

"We hope that the way we have taken will make it clear that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction," Saddam said, referring to Baghdad's acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 aimed at enforcing Iraq's disarmament.

The move would deprive the United States and its allies of any excuse to wage a war against Iraq, the Iraqi president stressed.

Iraq's ruling Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), chaired by Saddam, on Wednesday agreed to deal with the resolution despite what it views as the "bad contents."

The decision was made one day after the country's National Assembly voted unanimously in favor of rejecting the UN resolution.

After Baghdad accepted the resolution, an advance team of UN weapons inspectors, led by chief inspector Hans Blix, was expected to be back in Iraq as early as next Monday.

Iraq has been under sweeping UN sanctions since its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the embargo will not be lifted until the United Nations has verified that Iraq has eliminated all of its weapons of mass destruction and means to launch them.

Continuous spats about alleged espionage activities between Iraq and the UN arms inspectors, who were commissioned to verify that Iraq had been disarmed, led to the crisis in 1997 and 1998, and eventually the air war against Baghdad from Dec. 17-19, 1998.

The inspectors have since been barred from entering Iraq again. On Sept. 16, Iraq said it will allow UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq unconditionally.

However, the United States dismissed the Iraqi offer as "a tactic that will fail," while pushing for a new tough UN resolution which will "automate" the use of force in the event of Iraqi non-compliance.

The United States has been accusing Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction to pose a threat to its neighbors. Iraq denies the charge.

The UN Security Council last Friday voted unanimously to adopt the US draft resolution on Iraq seeking a tougher weapons inspection regime to disarm Baghdad.

Iraq has to confirm within seven days after the adoption of the resolution its intention to "comply fully" with its demands and cooperate with UN weapons inspectors, the resolution said, warning "further material breach" of Iraq's obligations would incur " serious consequences."

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