Iraq implicitly renewed its refusal to readmit UN arms inspectors and said international monitoring of weapons programs was only acceptable if applied to all states of the region, including Israel.
"Any ... monitoring of Iraq's (military) installations should be within the framework of overall monitoring of all countries of the region, chiefly the Zionist enemy," Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan told the opening session of an Arab conference on Saturday, reported AFP.
"As to talk of the return of UN inspectors, the search for and dismantling of Iraq's (prohibited) weapons was completed by the (now defunct UN) Special Commission and the spy teams affiliated to it," he said, two days after Baghdad held talks with UN secretary general Kofi Annan on the inspectors' possible return.
Their return would be aimed at "spying (on Iraq) and contriving crises" that would lead to "fresh US and British attacks" on the country, added Ramadan.
"The US administration of evil continues to opt for threats, aggression and feverish attempts to change the independent nationalist regime in Iraq by subsidizing (Iraqi opposition) agents and setting up terror camps for them," Ramadan said.
The Iraqi official told reporters on the sidelines of the "Arab popular conference" that there was no contradiction between the renewed dialogue with the UN and "Iraq's principled position on the inspectors, whom we in Iraq call spies." "We hope (the talks with the UN) will have beneficial results that would spare the world new problems and difficulties," he said.
"We are doing our share in giving dialogue a chance," Ramadan commented. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
