United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld kept up Washington's tough line toward Baghdad, as he wrapped up a three-nation Gulf tour Tuesday, insisting that Iraq was lying about its weapons programs.
Speaking to hundreds of US troops at the Al Udaid desert air base in Qatar, which US forces have heavily used in their "war on terror" in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld brushed off suggestions that his rhetoric could escalate tension in the region.
It was Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's persistence in developing weapons of mass destruction that was raising tension, he made clear.
Asked if leaders of the region backed Washington’s stance on Iraq, Rumsfeld, who visited Kuwait and Bahrain prior to Qatar, said that he had "notably warm and constructive" meetings in the course of his tour, AFP said.
Meanwhile, Rumsfeld renewed US charges that the Islamic Republic of Iran pursues weapons of mass destruction and abets terrorists.
Iran was sending terrorists to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and allowing militants from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network and Afghanistan's defeated Taliban militia to move into its territory, he said.
"It is entirely up to the Gulf (Arab) nations to decide what kind of relations they want to have with people like that," said Rumsfeld, who later left for India from where he will proceed to Pakistan in a bid to ease tensions between the two Asian nuclear-armed rivals. (albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
