Iraq Says It Won't Allow Arms Inspectors to Return

[Freedom]

Iraq Says It Won't Allow Arms Inspectors to Return

March 10, 2002 12:57 PM ET  

Reuters Photo
By Hassan Hafidh

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Sunday his country would not allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return.

"Iraq's rejection of the teams of spies to return back to Iraq is firm and won't change," Ramadan was quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency INA as saying, referring to the weapons inspectors.

"Iraq is fully convinced that there is no need for them (the inspectors) to return," Ramadan said. "They had carried out vicious spying activities in Iraq for more than eight years."

Ramadan's remarks came after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri ended a meeting in New York Thursday aimed at allowing the inspectors to return Iraq. Another meeting is set for April.

U.N. arms experts, searching for weapons of mass destruction, worked in Iraq several years before they left the country on the eve of U.S.-British bombing campaign in December 1998. They have not been allowed in since.

Late Saturday, Iraqi Deputy Premier Tareq Aziz said talks between Iraq and the United Nations should put as much importance on lifting sanctions and ending no-fly zones as on sending back weapons inspectors.

"Singling out the question of inspectors is wrong," Aziz told reporters.

"There are many items (the United Nations should discuss): the sanctions, the no-fly zones and the continuous aggression and violation of international law by the United States and United Kingdom," Aziz said.

"All these matters should be addressed, not just one item. The focus is on one subject (the return of inspectors) as if it were the only concern."

NO-FLY ZONES

The United States and Britain are enforcing no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, set up soon after the 1991 Gulf War to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Baghdad forces.

Sanctions were imposed on Iraq in August 1990 as punishment for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The United States wants U.N. inspectors to return to check if Baghdad is developing weapons of mass destruction.

Speculation is mounting that an Iraqi refusal could trigger a U.S. assault on Iraq aimed at toppling President Saddam Hussein.

Aziz told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper Sunday that the United Nations was not interested in weapons inspection but rather in overthrowing Saddam.

"The American president has made clear that the case of Iraq is not about the fight against terrorism and not about arms control," he said. "In disregard for our sovereignty, he wants to eliminate the regime of President Saddam Hussein and create an armed opposition to fan a civil war."

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that the U.S. administration has told the Defense Department to prepare, on a contingency basis, plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries including Iraq.

Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS television the contingency report was not a precursor to imminent U.S. action but was simply "sound, military conceptual planning."

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[boblandis]

Good. Make them the next one on the list.

[Teri Mc]

I guess nobody wants to respond to something against Iraq. Anyway Saddam knows what he is setting his country up for and I know somehow a certain population will see this as the evil of the USA, but he makes it pretty obvious he has something to hide. If he truly cared about the sanctions being lifted and a better life for his people he would just comply. The only reason the UN would ask for an arms inspection is they know this guy is nuts enough to use whatever means necessary to advance his kingdom. He has shown nothing but callous diregard for the countries around him and even members of his own family. I just wish we could get on with this whole mess so it doesn't drag out for twenty years.

Love in Christ

Teri

[Guest Levi]

You guys seem so detached from the reality and suffering caused by war. You know, this is more about what Saddam might do than anything he has done. It's a pretty sad state of affairs if you can kill thousands of people and overthrow a government over something it MIGHT do.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Saddam did comply for eight years and sanctions never ended. American officials admitted that sanctions would never end as long as Saddam was in power.  They only used the inspections as a way to try to find out where Saddam was hiding so they could bomb him. It was obvious that sanctions would never end for Iraq so why continue?

U.N. officials admitted that it would be impossible to verify that a country had no WMD

[Freedom]

Genocide?

Saddam continues to arm and build the great city of Babylon to be looked on as a god, and you blame America for the way saddam spends his money?

Children are dying because of saddam!

Inspections were a condition of his surrender.

[boblandis]

That is true. Saddam keeps his people in poverty. He is supposed to be selling his oil for food, clothing, medicine, etc. but it isn't getting there. He is keeping it and living in luxury. The one thing you do not realize when Iraq gets full capability of his weapons program, he will use it on us and Israel both. Before you gloat, don't forget the Palestinians live there too. Saddam will sacrifice a few Arabs to try to wipe out the Israelis. You can bet on that.

[Prime Number]

  You think the media is going to tell us if Saddam is spending his money on food, and medicine. No way. They want the story, and the story that the average 'blind' American wants to here, is that Saddam is evil etc. etc. etc.....'wer gonna get im'(cuz daddy couldn't).

  You think if the U.S. was in the position of Iraq, that Bush wouldn't be living in luxury, under guard? You thing that the majority of the supplies wouldn't go to our Military, to prevent an attack from a foreign nation? You think we would let any nation sanction us for 11 years, and tell us what we can buy, sell, or build? If you do then you're a fool. Of course that won't happen because we're the 'bully', throwing our weight around, and nobody picks on the bully. I have a feeling America is in for a rude awakening. You can't keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing, before all those who you've bullied push back, and you realize your out numbered.

Prime#

[Freedom]

Saddam worships the moon god allah, our pres has professed Jesus Christ in front of the whole world.

That carries alot of weight with me right there.

Saddam tried to "bully" as you call it, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, so he could control the oil and therefore hold the world hostage.

The day he invaded Kuwait gas prices went from 78 cents to ũ.56

Then when he saw he would be driven back out he torched all the oil fields.

Yet you defend this monster.

[Guest Levi]

It's a known fact that Saddam would not have moved on Kuwait unless he thought America would turn a blind eye. The Americans led him to believe that this was the case. They set him up. The reason Bush didn't finish him off was because it was too unpopular with the other Arabs so they just weakened him and kept him weak through cordoning off his country and controlling him from without. Unfortunately, the innocents suffered and Saddam is still in power. By the way, the dispute with Kuwait does have historical ties since it once belonged to Iraq so it's not like it was a crazed madman act right out of the blue. America just wanted to keep him in check, they're scared of him. It's just about control and power and that's it. The morality hype is just so Joe public will think it's the right thing to do.