US 'already at war with Iraq'

A former UN weapons inspector today accused the United States of exerting undue pressure on the international community to go to war with Iraq.

Scott Ritter, who opposes military action against Iraq, said: “I think we are closer to war then ever.

“I’ve been stating clearly that it’s not a question of when America will go to war with Iraq – we are already at war with Iraq. It’s just a question of when this war will enter the phase of large-scale conventional conflict.”

Mr Ritter, interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, rejected the suggestion that it might be the United Nations rather than America which entered the conflict.

He said: “Let’s not play games here. This is an American war and what’s happening right now is not an international effort to take Iraq into account, but the United States putting an extreme amount of pressure on the international community to bend to America’s will, not the will of the United Nations.”