On Saturday, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said that his country, accused by US President George W. Bush, of belonging to an "axis of evil", did not intend to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
"...weapons are important to defend the country against ambitions of foreigners and elements of evil, but your country is not interested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction," Saddam was quoted by the Iraqi News Agency as saying.
"We want to acquire more science to serve ordinary people and humanity at large," Saddam told a gathering of scientists from the Iraqi Nuclear Energy Organization.
President Bush's administration is looking at ways to oust Saddam Hussein on the grounds that Baghdad is developing weapons of mass destruction. Bush has continuously warned the Iraqi leader that his country would face the consequences if he does not let U.N. weapons inspectors to return.
Iraq has barred the inspectors from entering Iraq, since U.S. and British warplanes bombed Baghdad in December 1998. Iraq, for its part, denies it has any weapons of mass destruction.
Bush has signaled out Iraq as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and North Korea, saying he would not stand by as those states developed weapons of mass destruction. Speculation has mounted since Bush's State of the Union speech last month that military operation against Iraq was imminent, something Secretary of State Colin Powell has repeatedly denied.
Haider
The far-right Austria’s Freedom Party's strongman Joerg Haider, announced his surprise withdrawal from national politics Friday, amid growing strains in his party brought to a head by a row over his recent trip to Iraq, according to agencies.
"As of now I will withdraw completely from national politics," he said in an interview with national television, adding: "I’m already gone." Haider, the former head of the freedom party who struck a controversial coalition deal to bring it into government two years ago, said he would not stand in legislative elections late next year.
Freedom Party secretary general Peter Westenthaler, who publicly criticized Haider's Iraq trip, said Friday they planned to ask him to return to the national forum. Analysts said that "the fact that Joerg Haider is leaving his party in Vienna alone is a crisis symptom within the party. They predict a splitting in the party's uneasy coalition.
During his career in national politics Haider has taken the (FPOE) from a minor faction in the 1980s to the most successful far-right political formation in Europe when it took power in 2000.
His combination of winning oratory with staunchly nationalist policies, including a strong anti-immigr! ant slant, make for a popular brew in Austria, on Europe’s frontline with the former communist bloc. Haider was elected as governor of Carinthia for the second time in April 1999.
Haider's resignation is expected to cause uneasiness among government officials, and especially chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel who rapped Haider for his trip to Iraq to meet President Saddam Hussein this week, which Haider justified by saying it was a humanitarian mission. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
