No Evidence to Prove Iraq's Threat to US: Russian Envoy

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 20, 2003

No Evidence to Prove Iraq's Threat to US: Russian Envoy

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Russia preferred a political solution to the Iraqi crisis because no evidence could prove that the country poses direct threat to the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said at the UN Headquarters in New York Wednesday.

Ivanov told a UN Security Council session that if "indisputablefacts" demonstrating such a threat had been provided to the Security Council, Russia would have been prepared to use all meansnecessary to eliminate that threat.

But no proof has been produced, and the Security Council had been brushed aside, Ivanov noted.

He expressed regret that problems were raised that had "no bearing" on the council resolutions or other UN decision on the Iraqi issue.

"Not one of these decisions authorizes the right to use force against Iraq outside the UN Charter, and not one of them authorizes the violent overthrow of the leadership of a sovereign state," he said.

US President George W. Bush set a Wednesday evening deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face invasion by US-led forces.

Chief UN weapon inspector Hans listed a dozen questions that Iraq must answer to prove it is disarming peacefully. Despite looming war and the evacuation of UN inspectors, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said his country would still "seize any opportunity, no matter how small, to bring about a peaceful solution."

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