Iraq, US Wrangle over Violation of New UN Resolution

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Iraq, US Wrangle over Violation of New UN Resolution

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Iraq and the United States on Monday wrangled over whether Iraq's firing at Western airplanes patrolling over the no-fly zones constitutes a violation of the newly-adopted UN Security Council resolution.

The White House said it does, but Baghdad cracked back and dismissed the US allegation as a cover for "aggression" against Iraq.

"The establishment of the northern and southern no-fly zones in Iraq is a unilateral US-British decision which is not supported by any relevant Security Council resolutions," Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said during his meeting with Ivald Shnadler, head of the Iraqi-Austrian Friendship Society.

"The American intentions are not aimed at Iraq alone, but the countries in the whole region, so as to control their wealth and impose a policy in the interest of zionism," the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) quoted him as telling the visiting Austrian official.

Earlier in the day, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said theUS claims were "another demonstration of American intentions to use(UN Security Council) Resolution 1441 as a cover to justify its aggressive actions against Iraq."

"It's a manifestation of the US administration's violation of international laws and the UN Charter," he added.

The spokesman was referring to US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Sunday remarks in Santiago, Chile, that Iraqi air defenses' shooting at coalition aircrafts is an "unacceptable violation" of Resolution 1441 aimed at enforcing Iraq's disarmament.

The White House reinforced the US claims Monday by branding Iraq's behavior as a "material breach" of the resolution, which would incur "serious consequences" as the UN document provides.

"In the resolution it says that Iraq shall not take or threaten hostile acts directed at any representative or personnel of any member state taking action to uphold any council resolution," WhiteHouse spokesman Scott McClellan argued.

"We do, as you noted, believe it is a violation that would constitute a material breach," he insisted.

An Iraqi Air Defence Command spokesman said on Monday US and British warplanes had bombed civilian and service facilities in thenorthern province of Nineveh, without mentioning any casualties.

But the United States said the airplanes patrolling the northernno-fly zones dropped ammunition on Iraq's air defenses in response to Iraq's attacks.

US and British planes have been patrolling the northern and southern no-fly zones since the 1991 Gulf War with the claimed aim of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from persecution of the Iraqi government.

Iraq does not recognize the air exclusion zones and has regularly opened fire at the Western planes enforcing the two no-fly zones.

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