Iraq slammed a report released by the United States State Department, which included “repeated language of threats” against “independent world countries”.
An official spokesman for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry condemned the report, which enlisted Baghdad as one of seven countries claimed to be states supporting terrorism.
The official told the Iraqi News Agency INA that Washington described certain countries as supporting terrorism, however it did not provide any evidence for those accusations.
According to the Iraqi official, this indicates that the US uses the “so called ‘combating terrorism’ as a pretext to implement its aggressive policy” against countries that do not accept its hegemony, INA reported on Wednesday.
The spokesman added, "the US claims that Iraq” hadn’t upheld the “international drive to combat terrorism”, which, according to him, is a distortion of the facts and added, “Iraq was and is still facing terrorism (for) over 30 years” and it “rejected (the) US use of force in contradiction with (the) United Nations Charter”.
"Iraq stressed the necessity of giving a clear UN definition to terrorism that treat(s) its causes in compliance with international law and the UN charter”.
According to INA, the spokesman questioned, "how the report accused Iraq with sponsoring terrorism as it supported (the) Palestinian Intifada at (a) time Palestinian people defend their land and confront the Zionist occupation, and at the same time the US administration exempts the Zionist entity from terrorist occupation and all war crimes and killing(s)".
"The US administration supported the Zionist occupation with money, weapons and international protection, which makes it (a) full culprit in the terrorist operations against (the) Palestinian people," he added, according to the News Agency.
"However, the US named the Zionist Prime Minister (Ariel Sharon) with his horrible crimes against humanity as a “peace man”, besides, they expressed understanding to the Zionist occupation and vowed support for their crimes in the occupied territories," the spokesman said.
The Agency added that “US double-standard policies would hurt motives of combating terrorism for they harbor some terrorists at the same time they attack some countries under the same pretext”.
The Iraqi official further conveyed, "the Iraqi people had been the first victim of US terrorism for more than 30 years when many civilians and officials had been subjected to assassination across borders by … US trained and armed agents” at the same time the “US had proclaimed it spent tens of millions of dollars for its agents to commit terrorist actions against the Iraqi people under a US so-called “Law of Liberating Iraq.””
The spokesman added that Iraqi cities, economic and scientific installations are being exposed to daily raids since 1991, pointing out that the imposition of the so-called 'no-fly zones' by the US and Britain against Iraq constitutes a violation of international law and the UN Charter.
He added that the only way to combat terrorism is if the US would give up “domination, arrogance and intervention in peoples’ affairs” and return to UN principles.
September 11
Regarding the September 11 attacks, the spokesman said, "Iraq had paid condolences to the victims and families inflicted in the attacks” and added that the civilian victims of the September 11 attacks constitute a “painful matter”, as millions of victims died due to “US and Zionist aggressive acts and embargoes”.
The Iraqi official expressed that President Saddam Hussein had sent a letter to the US government and people and urged them to deal with the event “wisely”.
The Iraqi President, according to the official, called on them to review their policy against the people of the world, in order to reach “international peace and stability”, he said. (albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
