The Iraqi government disclosed yesterday that food distribution has been increased so that civilians can stockpile supplies for a US-led war.
The move came as jets from the US and British force, which has been regularly bombing targets in Iraq, attacked what they claimed were military positions in the south of the country. Iraq claimed that three civilians were killed and a mosque destroyed on the outskirts of Nasiriyah .
Readying itself for full-scale war, the Iraqi trade minister, Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, said yesterday that everyone in Iraq should have a stockpile of food to last three months.
”And we are going to increase the quantity in the coming months so that everybody is secured in this regard.”
After a decade of serious deprivations due to UN sanctions, Baghdad continues to ration basic food supplies. Better-off Iraqis have access to most foodstuffs on the open market and have been stockpiling food this autumn. But the poorest are dependent on food rations – nearly all can recite almost to the exact gram their entitlement of rice, milk powder, cooking oil, wheat and other basics.
Saleh said that since earlier this year every household had received double rations every other month.
He also warned that war would bring hardship not only to the Iraqi civilian population but also to the aggressors.
”We have taken measures to defend our country, our land and [war] will not be a picnic … They will face hardship, difficulties and big losses if any aggression takes place and they will not achieve any objective from the war,” he said.
It echoed a speech that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, read out on state television 24 hours earlier, in which he called for extra efforts to boost national pride and faith ”in order for people to see that it is worth it to sacrifice their soul and life in defence of the nation”.
Those with a vested interest in keeping President Saddam in power will have to fight, fearful of a vengeful population should he fall. But the reaction of most people is open to doubt, with hatred of President Saddam weighed against dislike of the US for its support of sanctions and for Israel.
The Iraqi armed forces have carried out extensive war games, including urban warfare, says the Iraqi press.
The UN weapons inspectors, who have now conducted some 180 inspections across Iraq over the past five weeks, returned yesterday to the Baghdad university of technology, which they first visited on Christmas Eve, to interview Sabah Abdel-Nour, a scientist involved in Iraq’s nuclear programme, a project that Iraq claims to have dismantled.
Abdel-Nour, who refused to meet the inspectors without Iraqi officials being present, told reporters that Iraq no longer had such a programme.
Iraq said yesterday that the inspectors had found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction despite its five-week-long hunt.
Chief of Iraq’s national monitoring directorate, Hussam Mohammad Amin, said: ”The inspections teams have not found any direct or indirect evidence to prove the credibility of the false claims of the American and British administrations that Iraq is involved in banned programmes or stores banned weapons on its territories.”
The US and Britain claim to have intelligence that Iraq has developed weapons of mass destruction over the past four years. The chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, is due to report to the world body on January 27. That report will prompt a debate in the security council and could prove the catalyst for war, although some British officials insist that conflict could be delayed until after the summer.
In another sign of American moves towards war, US state and treasury officials are to visit Turkey this week to discuss a package of help worth billions of dollars in return for use of Turkish airbases and other support during a war. Although Turkey is a member of Nato, the US will have to provide financial incentives to secure Turkish help. – Guardian Unlimited Â