Iraq claims 'super cooperation' with UN

Baghdad - Iraq's foreign minister insisted today that his government has provided "super cooperation" to U.N. weapons inspectors and has done "everything possible" to prevent a war with the United States.

In a pre-emptive response to a report the U.N.'s chief inspectors delivered today, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri dismissed U.S. criticism of Iraq's compliance as "splitting hairs" and claimed that the onus of averting a conflict now was on the Bush administration.

"The ball is in their court," Sabri said at a news conference. "We have done everything possible to let this country and the whole region to avoid the danger and the threat of war and destruction by the warmongers of Washington."

He accused Bush administration and British Prime Minster Tony Blair of "escalating the situation" and increasing the odds of a war. "It's inevitable for warmongers, for those who cannot find themselves without exporting destruction and death," he said.

Although a senior aide to President Saddam Hussein said an interview over the weekend that Iraq's leadership now believes a war is unavoidable, Sabri's comments today were the most forceful and public articulation of that conclusion. Delivered five hours before the U.N. Security Council was due to begin its meeting, his statements appeared designed to encourage other council members to increase pressure on the Bush administration to delay its war plans and allow the inspections to continue.

Sabri insisted Iraq has "done our duty" in complying with a council resolution that mandated the latest round on inspections, which began exactly two months ago. He said the inspectors have conducted almost 500 searches of "offices, guesthouses, mosques, universities, hospitals, factories, military sites" without any obstacles from the Iraqi government.

"How were those things done without Iraqi cooperation?" he asked.

The U.N.'s chief inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, have acknowledged that Iraq has not blocked the inspectors from visiting any sites, but they have said Iraq has not done enough to encourage its scientists to submit to private interviews or to provide documents that would help answer lingering questions about Iraq's past programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Sabri insisted the Iraq has encouraged its scientists to agree to private interviews but that the government cannot force people to do so. "I think you care very much in the United States and in Europe for personal freedom, personal liberties," he said. "Are those scientists not covered by this concept? You ask us to force them to accept unattended interviews. We have encouraged them but we cannot force them."

Sabri said the U.S. government was dwelling on the issue of interviews because the inspectors have "found nothing" in their first two months of inspections.

"They found no evidence," he said. "And they have no evidence for the simple reason that there is nothing. There is nothing prohibited that can be reported."

Sabri said he hoped the inspectors' report would be "fair and that they would present the facts as they are on the ground -- that there are no banned weapons or activities ... and the Iraqi authorities had cooperated effectively on a wide scale with inspection teams."

He accused U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell of telling "a series of lies" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, over the weekend "about Iraq not cooperating over the last 11 years" with arms inspections.

State-run media reported today that Hussein convened a joint meeting of his ruling Baath Party's leadership committee and the Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq's highest executive body, on Sunday to discuss "political conditions."

Today, the weapons inspectors observed the test-firing of a missile engine at the al-Rafah testing station, located about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad. U.S. intelligence analysts have suggested that a new test unit at al-Rafah might be used for missiles with longer ranges than the 90 miles allowed under U.N. resolutions.

Inspectors clad in protective suits paid a surprise visit to a Health Ministry storage facility in Baghdad, where they were observed using portable detectors to check metal containers. -- Washington Post

Brudirect.com