UNITED
NATIONS, February 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq rejected
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s statement to the Security
Council Wednesday, February 5, as incorrect and poorly sourced,
branding it “a typical American show”.
“Iraq
will provide detailed and technical responses to the allegations,”
its ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Al-Douri, told the
council in reply to Powell’s 83-minute audio-visual presentation,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported .
Complaining
about not granted equal time space to that given to Powell, and in an
immediate reaction, Al-Douri said Powell had given the Council “mere
sound recordings that cannot be ascertained as genuine” and
“incorrect allegations” made by “unknown sources.”
Denying
allegations made by Powell that it had links with Osama bin Laden’s
Al-Qaeda network, Al-Douri said: “If we had a relationship with
Al-Qaeda and we believed in that relationship, we would not be ashamed
to admit it. We have no relationship with Al-Qaeda”.
Moreover,
Al-Douri said that the main purpose of Powell’s presentation at the
United Nations was to sell the idea of war against Iraq, without
legal, political or moral justification.
“The
clear goal behind holding this meeting ... is to sell the idea of war
and aggression against my country, Iraq, without any legal, moral or
political justification,” said Al-Douri.
Al-Douri
was responding to Powell’s presentation of U.S. evidence to back up
Washington’s contention that Iraq has defied U.N. resolutions
demanding that it disarm of weapons of mass destructions.
It
was “a false accusation” that trucks had left weapons sites before
the inspectors arrived, Al-Douri said.
The
U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were “very well
informed about what was happening on the ground,” he said.
“Huge
production facilities” were required for the research and
development of chemical and biological weapons, and “such things
cannot be concealed,” he said.
A
visit to Baghdad this weekend by UNMOVIC chairman Hans Blix and IAEA
director Mohamed ElBaradei was “a further opportunity to ascertain
and verify the validity of these allegations,” Al-Douri said.
Powell
had given the council “a set of accusations that could easily be
refuted,” Al-Douri told reporters later.
Iraq
was “committed to pro-actively cooperate with U.N. inspectors, as we
have done since their return” to Iraq on November 27, he said.
Typical
American Show
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One
of Powell’s controversial images
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In
Baghdad, meanwhile, Iraq denounced Powell’s presentation of the U.S.
case against Baghdad on Wednesday as “a typical American show
complete with ... special effects”.
General
Amr Al-Saadi, an advisor to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, scoffed at
the intercepted telephone messages presented by Powell to show deceit
on disarmament as the “work of a third-rate intelligence outfit”.
Replying
in short to key points raised by Powell, Al-Saadi rejected the charge
that Iraq refused to cooperate (with weapons inspectors), by allowing
the U.S. spy planes U-2 to fly over Iraqi space.
“We
did not refuse that offer, we just asked that U.S. and U.K. planes
violating our space over the so-called no-fly zones – in a clear
violation of U.N. resolutions – to respect our space during flights
by the U-2s, is that too much to ask? How would we guarantee the
safety of the spy planes if the Americans did not stop violations of
our space then? How would we be sure they (Americans) would not shoot
a U-2 plane down to set us up before the world?” Al-Saadi wondered.
Turning
the heat up on Washington, Al-Saadi accused the United States of being
in “material breach” of Security Council Resolution 1441.
“Powell
and the Bush administration committed a material breach of 1441, by
withholding what they call information from the weapons inspectors, in
line with article 10 of that resolution, that states all countries
must cooperate to make the inspection process a success,” Al-Saadi
said.
“Was
it not more logic to give those intercepted calls and space images to
the inspectors to verify them?” He charged.
‘Nothing
New’ in Powell Presentation
In
a separate related development, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel
said there was nothing in Powell's presentation to the U.N. Security
Council to justify attacking Iraq.
“One
cannot say that there were new elements,” Michel told Belgian TV
network RTL-TVI.
“We
think that the conditions are not there to authorize, to justify an
American attack,” he said.
“We
are in the camp of those who think peace is still possible,” Michel
added, calling for U.N. weapons inspectors to be given more time.
And
in Rome, a poll published Wednesday showed that most Italians oppose
war with Iraq, even if U.N. weapons inspectors discover weapons of
mass destruction.
The
survey showed 72 percent of respondents were opposed to a war and 62
percent were against Italian participation, even if U.N. weapons
inspectors uncovered evidence that Iraq held weapons of mass
destruction, AFP reported.
The
telephone poll, in which 800 people were questioned, was published the
day before Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was due to address
parliament on his government’s position in the Iraq crisis.
Saddam
Hussein is considered a “threat to world peace” by 63 percent of
respondents, but only 19 percent favored war. Thirty percent said that
if it comes to a conflict, Italy should participate.
Seventy-one
percent believe Italy should align itself with France and Germany,
which have distanced themselves from the United States, while 17
percent believe Italy should continue to support the U.S. position.
Berlusconi
is a key European ally of Washington, but says a second U.N.
resolution on Iraq would be necessary to give legitimacy to any
military strike.
Italian
military assistance pledged by Berlusconi would focus on provision of
humanitarian aid, logistics and policing in a defeated Iraq.
