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Former
Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu
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BAGHDAD,
September 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq dismissed a claim
by former Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu on Sunday, September
15, that Baghdad had assured Israel in 1998 it would not attack the
Jewish state in case of a U.S. attack.
“Such
illusions can only exist in the sick minds” of Israeli leaders, said
Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, quoted by the official INA
news agency.
Netanyahu
told Israeli army radio on Wednesday, September 11, that Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein sent him a message in 1998 saying “Iraq would not
launch missiles on Israel” in retaliation for a U.S. attack.
“I
let him know this was a wise decision, because Israel would certainly
respond,” the former premier added.
The
United States and Britain launched a bombing blitz on Iraq in December
1998, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Having
exhausted “all cheap lies” he could come up with, Netanyahu had been
reduced to making an “absurd, laughable” claim, Sahhaf said,
“challenging” the former Israeli premier to prove his allegation.
It
was common knowledge that Iraq was being targeted by the United States
precisely because of its uncompromising stand toward Israel, Sahhaf
added.
Iraq
launched 39 Scud missiles at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, but the
Jewish state acceded to a request from Washington not to respond for
fear that Israeli involvement would break up the U.S.-led anti-Iraq
coalition.
Baghdad
was required to destroy all missiles with a range of more than 150
kilometers (95 miles) under the terms of the U.N. ceasefire resolutions
that brought the Gulf War to an end.
It
says this was certified by then U.N. chief inspector Rolf Ekeus in
mid-1995, AFP reported.
Iraq
is now under threat of a U.S. assault aimed at overthrowing Saddam.
Sahhaf did not say if Iraq would try to attack Israel if the United
States launched a military offensive.
