Baghdad expects the United States to step up its bombing campaign against Iraq, Deputy Foreign Minister Nizar Hamdoon was quoted by AFP as saying Friday, rejecting accusations that his country was developing weapons of mass destruction.
"We expect an escalation on the ground. They will not stop the bombardments, particularly when their Iraqi game is useful at home in America," he told a news conference in Paris.
Hamdoon dismissed allegations Iraq was developing "weapons of mass destruction."
"It's a scarecrow that the United States brings up every time," he said.
US President George W. Bush has protested to China about its alleged involvement in bolstering Iraq's air defenses.
At his first news conference since taking office, Bush said he was "concerned about the Chinese presence in Iraq" and was "sending the appropriate response" to Beijing, said BBC.online.
China and Iraq have already denied allegations that Chinese civilian and military workers have been helping lay fiber-optic cables to improve Iraq's air defense network, in contravention of UN sanctions.
At the presser, Hamdoon rubbished US claims that Chinese experts had helped Iraq put in place a fiber-optic network to control its air defense systems.
"There are no Chinese experts in Iraq; everyone knows that. I formally deny this type of assertion," he declared.
The Iraqi representative was speaking after a series of meetings with France's most senior foreign affairs officials, said AFP.
During the meetings, the French -- who have strongly criticized the February 16 Anglo-American bombing raid -- urged Iraq to cooperate fully with the United Nations and allow international monitors to inspect its weapons programmes.
Hamdoon said that weapons inspections could not resume until the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, an attack which provoked the 1991 Gulf War between a US-led coalition and Iraqi forces.
"If the embargo were to be lifted, we would be ready to readmit weapons inspections," he said.
Bush was quoted as saying that a full review of sanctions against Iraq was under way, as the existing regime was so full of holes it was like "Swiss cheese.”
The BBC also reported that US warplanes again struck air defense targets in northern Iraq on Thursday, the first time since major raids were launched near the capital Baghdad last week.
The latest attack - north of the city of Mosul - was the first since air strikes were launched at targets near the Iraqi capital Baghdad last Friday.
US forces' European Command said the strike was in retaliation for anti-aircraft artillery being fired at aircraft patrolling the air exclusion zone imposed by the UK-US coalition which covers much of the north of the country.
"Coalition aircraft responded to the Iraqi attacks by dropping ordnance on elements of the Iraqi integrated air defense system," the US command said in a statement.
The so-called “no-fly” zones are not backed by the UN Security Council.
Responding to calls from Baghdad for a condemnation of recent air actions in Iraq, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has emphasized that only the Security Council can determine the legality of actions in the "no-fly zones" declared over parts of the country, according to UN news service.
The Secretary-General's position was voiced in a letter sent to the Foreign Minister of Iraq, who earlier this week wrote to Annan calling for condemnation of last Friday's "act of aggression" by the United States and the United Kingdom.
Annan's reply pointed out that only the Security Council can interpret its resolutions. "Consequently, only the Council itself is competent to determine whether or not its resolutions are of such a nature and effect as to provide a lawful basis for the 'no-fly zones' and for the actions that have been taken for their enforcement."
Iraq on Friday reiterated its rejection of US-British proposals to introduce "smart" sanctions, saying they paved the way for the return of UN weapons inspectors, which Baghdad has refused, according to AFP.
"'Smart' sanctions proposed by the Americans and British are a way of relaunching resolution 1284, which Iraq has already rejected," charged Ath-Thawra newspaper, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party.
"Far from having a humanitarian dimension, these proposals are fuelled by malicious motives to maintain sanctions indefinitely under new, yet more spiteful, forms," the paper said.
Washington and London have proposed adapting UN sanctions to better target the regime of President Saddam Hussein, “without harming the Iraqi people.”
According to the agency, US and British diplomats have begun discussing a smoothing of sanctions on Iraq in an attempt to rebuild an international consensus on containing Saddam Hussein, while Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are due to hold talks on the issue.
The US-Britaish continued aggression on Baghdad has provoked angry protests in the Middle East and beyond over the attacks, souring UN-Iraqi relations ahead of key talks aimed at paving the way for a lifting of the decade-old embargo on Iraq, said BBC.
In the same context, members of Malaysia's Islamic opposition party, chanting "Get rid of Bush" and "Long live Islam," staged a protest outside the US embassy Friday against US and British air raids on Baghdad, reported AFP.
About 50 members of the youth wing of the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) rallied outside the gates, with a banner reading "Stop the Agony," as a delegation presented a protest letter inside.
A squad of riot police with batons and shields was posted nearby but there were no incidents.
US and British aircraft bombed Iraqi radar and command and control posts in and around the Iraqi capital on February 16. Iraq said three civilians were killed and 30 wounded.
Meanwhile, Blair defended his decision to join in US-led air strikes against Iraq, during a stopover in Canada Thursday, said a report by The Associated Press.
The 24-hour visit -- Blair's first to Canada as prime minister -- gave him a chance to discuss the new US president with Jean Chretien, the Canadian leader who met with Bush earlier this month, said the AP.
Blair said last week's air strikes were needed to prevent Baghdad from re-emerging as a threat to world peace.
"The reason why we have to act is to prevent him (Saddam Hussein) from developing the capability to threaten the world again," Blair was quoted as saying after a one-hour meeting with Chretien on Thursday
– Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
