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Bush Calls on Iraq to Let in Arms Inspectors
WASHINGTON, Nov 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday called on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow arms inspectors back into his country to see if Baghdad is developing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
"In order to prove to the world he's not developing weapons of mass destruction, he ought to let the inspectors back in," Bush said during a public appearance in the White House Rose Garden.
Asked what consequences would follow a refusal to allow the inspectors to return to Iraq, Bush curtly replied, "He'll find out."
Last week, the United States accused Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Syria of developing or being ready to develop biological weapons in a violation of an international ban on germ warfare, news agencies reported.
U.S. Under-Secretary of State John Bolton told a conference in Geneva on the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) that "Iraq's biological weapons program remains a serious threat to international security," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The U.S. strongly suspects that Iraq has taken advantage of three years of no U.N. inspections to improve all phases of its offensive BW [biological weapons] program," Bolton said.
However, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on Iraq weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who also served as a U.S. Marine during the Gulf War, has explicitly and unequivocally stated that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, which includes the threat of germ warfare.
Commenting in Washington D.C. earlier this month, Ritter warned against attempting to expand the "war on terrorism" by finding excuses by which to justify attacking Iraq.
Washington has warned that its war on terrorism might extend beyond the borders of Afghanistan.
Many Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states, however, are reluctant to sanction strikes on fellow Muslim or Arab countries.
"Launching strikes against any Arab country under any pretence would lead to severe complications," Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told Egyptian radio as the league's foreign ministers gathered in October.
Moussa said the Arab position would be "fierce" if Arab countries were attacked within the context of the ongoing campaign.
The foreign ministers of the OIC said in a joint statement issued last month that they "rejected that any Islamic or Arab country is attacked under the pretext of the fight against terrorism."
"We could never accept strikes against any Arab country, particularly since the accusations made by the United States focused on specific camps, which have been linked to what happened in New York and Washington," he said.
Iraq, a sworn enemy of the United States since the 1991 Gulf War, has been suggested as a potential target for more U.S.-led strikes.
"The U.N. should be the pivot of the fight against terrorism," Moussa added at the end of informal consultations among the ministers of the 22-member league last month.
Additional reporting by IslamOnline's Neveen A. Salem
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