Saddam moves to ease tensions
Saddam Hussein apparently moved to cool the war of words between Baghdad and Washington today, saying the Iraqi people should welcome the UN arms inspectors.
The Iraqi leader contradicted his vice president, who last night accused the international monitors of being US and Israeli spies.
Taha Yassin Ramadan also accused the inspectors of staging the intrusion into a presidential palace as a provocation that could lead to war.
“Their work is to spy to serve the CIA and Mossad,” Ramadan said in language reminiscent of clashes with inspectors in the 1990s.
The team of weapons experts are finishing their first week back in Iraq, where they are hunting for evidence of programmes to develop biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
In a holiday greeting to his Baath party, Saddam said the inspections were a welcome opportunity to disprove American allegations that his government is making such weapons.
He said he had agreed to the checks, in which one of his own palaces was searched, “to keep our people out of harm’s way” in the face of US threats.
He denounced Washington as an “unjust, arrogant, debased American tyranny”. Then, turning to US weapons claims, he said Iraqis wanted to disprove those allegations after the four year absence of UN arms inspectors.
“Some might claim that we did not give them a proper chance to resist, with tangible evidence, the American allegations,” Saddam said. “We shall provide them with such a chance.”
Washington has threatened to go to war against Iraq if Baghdad does not disarm. Apparently referring to eventual war, Saddam said: “We shall take the stand that befits our people, principles and mission. Victory will be yours.”
President George Bush has said Saddam “is not somebody who looks like he is interested in complying.
“We expect him to disarm, and now it is up to him to do so,” he said.
“Anybody who shoots at US airplanes or British airplanes is not somebody who looks like he’s interested in complying with disarmament.”
Bush’s Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said he is certain Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction, and that he “absolutely sure” Saddam will try to deceive them.
He said if a peaceful solution was not found, “the international community, I predict, will be unified in using force.”
Iraq is required by the UN Security Council to hand over a list by Sunday of any weapons of mass destruction it has, as well as a description of any long-range missile programmes.
What Saddam is most likely to do is provide thousands of documents on peripheral issues like dual-use equipment, commercial material of potential military use, a senior US official said.
The Iraqi leader’s aim will be to try to shift the burden to the United States to prove he is lying, the official added.
Meanwhile, a UN spokesman defended its inspectors from claims by Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who said they were US and Israeli spies.
“Clearly we are there to work for the Security Council,” said the spokesman, Ewen Buchanan. “We are not there to work for member states, and Dr Blix has made it clear to the Iraqis and also publicly that if he finds anybody working for governments then he would immediately fire them.”
* In Baghdad, inspection team leader Demetrius Perricos said a powerful chemical weapon, the liquid agent mustard, was found yesterday in Iraqi artillery shells at a desert installation.
After a week of searches, the inspectors took a break today, the start of the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
