Moscow | Wednesday
THE commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks, said Wednesday he did not think any decision had been taken on attacking Iraq as part of the next phase of Washington’s war against terrorism.
”I don’t think that any decision has been made with respect to Iraq, and at this point I wouldn’t like to speculate with regard to Iraq one way or another,” Franks told journalists in Moscow.
But he said Iraq’s leader ”Saddam Hussein has been recognised by many nations in the world as a problem, and he continues to be a problem.”
The US administration has threatened to take military action against Iraq and try to overthrow the regime unless UN inspectors are allowed back in to check that Baghdad no longer has weapons of mass destruction.
Franks was speaking in Moscow ahead of talks with Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, and the chief of its general staff, General Anatoly Kvashnin, whom he was expected to brief on the latest developments in Afghanistan.- Sapa-AFP