/ 21 February 2002

SUDAN BLASTS BUSH OVER “AXIS OF EVIL”

SUDANESE Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail on Monday voiced his country’s opposition to any US strike on Iraq as part of Washington’s “war on terror.” “We refuse any strike on Iraq. If Iraq is hit today, Sudan will be tomorrow and other Arab countries the day after tomorrow,” Ismail told reporters on arrival in the Iraqi capital. Ismail said he was carrying a message from Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “on bilateral relations and the current situation in the Arab world.” US President George W. Bush charged in a January 29 State of the Union address that Iraq, Iran and North Korea formed an “axis of evil” and were seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and accused Baghdad of continuing to “support terror.” – AFP