US Claims it Has 'Solid' Evidence on Iraqi Weapons

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 06, 2002

US Claims it Has 'Solid' Evidence on Iraqi Weapons

The United States on Thursday rejected Iraq's denial that it possesses weapons of mass destruction, saying that it has "solid" evidence that Iraq has such weapons.

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The United States on Thursday rejected Iraq's denial that it possesses weapons of mass destruction, saying that it has "solid" evidence that Iraq has such weapons.

"The president of the United States and the secretary of defense would not assert as plainly and bluntly as they have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction if it was not true, and if they did not have a solid basis for saying it," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said at a regular briefing.

Fleischer made the remarks when asked about Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz's statement that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction.

"We don't have weapons of mass destruction. We don't have chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry, but we have equipment which was defined as dual use," Aziz said in an interview with ABCNews in Baghdad on Wednesday.

"The statement is just as false as statements that Iraq made inthe late '90s when they said they had no weapons of mass destruction, when it was found they indeed did. There is no basis to that," Fleischer responded.

But when challenged by reporters why the United States does notshare its "evidence" with UN weapons inspectors, Fleischer simply said the United States will provide inspectors information and tools they need.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has denied that his country possesses weapons of mass destruction any longer, saying that the issue is only a pretext used by the United States to wage a war against the oil-rich country.

"The fact is that we don't have weapons of mass destruction. Wedon't have chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry, but we have equipment which was defined as dual uses," Aziz said in an interview with ABC television network in Baghdad on Wednesday. Theinterview was posted on the ABC News website Thursday.

Aziz said that a war is not because of weapons of mass destruction and that the whole issue of weapons of mass destruction is just a hoax. "It has been used as a pretext in order to wage a war against Iraq," he said, adding that the UnitedStates will use another pretext to attack Iraq when it finds thereare no weapons of mass destruction.

"There is a plan to attack Iraq... There is a plan for regime change," Aziz added.

Asked whether a war could be avoided, Aziz said he believed that the presence of UN inspectors in Iraq will not be a major factor that could prevent a war.

"The major factor will be the international development againstwar. If America can find allies to wage this war, if it can find concrete assistance from a number of countries in the region and the world, it will go on with the war, you see, and find a pretextfor that," he said.

"Washington wants the war. It wants the war for its imperialistpurposes," he went on.

Aziz said that Iraq will come up with a declaration on its alleged weapons of mass destruction programs Saturday, one day before the deadline established set the UN Security Council resolution 1441.

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