Iraq told world leaders on Monday that the United States was poised to attack the country and warned it would retaliate, as Russia said it could veto US attempts to win UN Security Council approval for strikes against the Iraqi regime.
”The United States is threatening to launch another large-scale aggression against Iraq,” Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said in speech at the UN Earth Summit in South Africa.
”We will fight against them. This is our obligation,” he later told reporters there.
The United States has threatened to strike Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein on the grounds that he is developing weapons of mass destruction.
Aziz said he would meet UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday to discuss the matter, telling reporters Iraq ”could consider” allowing UN weapons inspectors back in ”as part of a comprehensive settlement” with Washington.
”This issue (of weapon inspectors) is not the only issue. Sanctions, the continuous aggression, threats of war — all these issues have to be addressed,” he said.
”Let us solve all the problems comprehensively. There is no crisis between Iraq and the United Nations. The problem is with the Americans.”
The White House reacted by saying it doubted Baghdad was sincere about the return of the UN inspectors and brushed aside talk of a rift within the administration over Iraq.
”Iraq changes positions on whether they’ll let the inspectors back in more often than Saddam Hussein changes bunkers,” said representative Ari Fleischer.
He derided talk of a split between US Secretary of State Colin Powell, seen as a moderate on Iraq, and ”hawks” like President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney has said weapons inspections cannot ensure Iraq has disarmed and Washington has no plans to abandon its policy to topple Saddam Hussein even if the inspectors are allowed back.
Russia on Monday accused Bush of having political motives for seeking to oust Saddam Hussein and warned it could veto US moves to obtain UN Security Council support for an attack.
”I hope that this question is not raised in the Security Council, that Russia’s veto will not be necessary. We think that the Iraqi situation can only be resolved through diplomatic means,” Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters.
Russia is an outspoken opponent of US military strikes on Iraq, which Bush says is part of an ”axis of evil” that sponsors terrorism and is developing weapons of mass destruction.
Ivanov said Washington had produced no evidence that Iraq was developing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
”There has not been a single well-founded argument that proves Iraq threatens US national security,” he said.
Ministers from the Gulf states warned on Monday a US attack would ”provoke revenge and violence in Arab and Islamic countries” and risked plunging the world into chaos.
Officials for the Gulf Cooperation Council ? comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — said the ministers were likely to urge Iraq to work through the UN and allow arms inspectors back.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela said on Monday he would be ”appalled” if the US attacked Iraq without UN approval.
”No country must be allowed to take the law into its own hands. What they are doing is introducing chaos into international affairs and we condemn that in the strongest terms,” he said.
Mandela’s successor Thabo Mbeki and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also spoke out against US strikes when they met in South Africa, the government there said.
In oil-rich Iraq itself, Saddam Hussein accused the US of seeking to control the oil of the Gulf region, which sits on the world’s largest crude reserves.
”The United States believes it will control the oil of the Middle East … which sits on 65% of world reserves, if it destroys Iraq,” the official INA news agency quoted him as saying.
Iraqi officials opened up another suspected weapons production site to journalists, in the fourth such public relations exercise in around a month.
And the Iraqi military fired missiles at US and British warplanes flying the north and south of the country, forcing them to ”flee” to their bases in Turkey and Kuwait, INA reported.
Meanwhile the British defence ministry dismissed as speculation reports that the deployment to the Mediterranean of its 20 000-ton aircraft carrier, alongside warships from nine other nations, showed London was gearing up for war with Iraq. – Sapa-AFP