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Saddam's
Deputy Holds Talks In Cairo On Heels Of Cheney Visit
CAIRO,
March 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq's number two Ezzat
Ibrahim met in Cairo Thursday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,
following an earlier visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
According
to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Ibrahim left Cairo after a lightning
visit and around 40 minutes of talks with Mubarak, after which no
statement was issued.
Mubarak
was to have informed Ibrahim of the results of his talks with Cheney
Wednesday, March 13, in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh,
according to an Egyptian presidential source, AFP reported.
The
Egyptian leader said after meeting Cheney that he was confident
Iraq's President Saddam Hussein would allow the return of U.N. arms
inspectors, thus heading off a crisis with the United States.
"I
think, as far as my knowledge is, he's going to accept the
inspectors," Mubarak told a press conference.
Ibrahim,
who is vice president of Iraq's decision-making Revolutionary
Command Council, is on a regional swing coinciding with an Arab tour
by Cheney focused on rallying support for the upcoming U.S. strike
on Iraq.
So
far, Ibrahim has visited Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. He said
Wednesday in Beirut that a threat against Iraq amounted to a threat
"against the whole Arab nation."
During
his stop in Sharm el-Sheikh, Cheney said "our next objective is
to prevent terrorists, and regimes that sponsor terror, from
threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass
destruction".
Egypt
has repeatedly voiced opposition to U.S. military action against
Iraq, which Washington accuses of seeking to acquire weapons of mass
destruction in the absence of international arms inspectors.
Mubarak
said Wednesday that Egypt believed that every possible effort should
be exerted to implement relevant U.N. resolutions without inflicting
more sufferings on the Iraqi people.
"On
the other hand, it is of great importance to maintain the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq. This is a must for
preserving stability in the region," Mubarak said at a joint
press conference with Cheney after talks at Sharm el Sheikh.
Mubarak
stressed that Egypt was trying hard to let Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein accept U.N. arms inspectors.
"I
think that as far as my knowledge is concerned, Saddam is going to
accept the inspectors," Mubarak said.
Iraq
has been defying the U.S. demand for the return of U.N. arms
inspectors, who withdrew from Iraq on the eve of the U.S.- British
air strike in December 1998 and have not been allowed back since
then.
U.S.
President George W. Bush has demanded that the Iraqi regime allow
the arms inspectors back or face serious consequences.
Not
long after Mubarak spoke, Bush voiced "deep concern" about
Iraq, saying Saddam Hussein is a “problem” and “we are going
to deal with him”, BBC’s online news service reported.
"I
will not allow a nation such as Iraq to threaten our very future by
developing weapons of mass destruction," he said, adding that
Vice President Dick Cheney was touring Arab nations "reminding
people of this danger".
"This
is a nation run by a man who is willing to kill his own people by
using chemical weapons, a man who won't let inspectors into the
country, a man who's obviously got something to hide," Bush
told reporters in Washington.
The
U.N. Special Commission on Disarmament (UNSCOM), branded a
"nest of spies" by Saddam, concluded that the Baghdad
regime had repeatedly lied and failed to come anywhere near clean on
its huge arsenal.
But
Iraq, battling to hold on to its sovereignty, gained some support as
evidence emerged of collusion between some inspectors and the United
States and Israel.
Even
Hans Blix, head of a new arms inspection body waiting in the wings
-- the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection
Commission (UNMOVIC), felt moved this month to say his team would
not be spies for anyone.
UNSCOM
claimed Baghdad failed to reveal the full extent of its ability to
produce missiles with a range of more than 150 kilometers (90 miles)
and suspected that it had failed to destroy all such weapons.
The
International Atomic Energy Agency found no evidence by late 1998
that Iraq had produced nuclear weapons, despite a major nuclear
weapons program, or was capable of producing such weapons.
However,
UNSCOM confessed it failed to account for Iraq's chemical and
biological weapons programs.
Inspectors
believed Baghdad had filled missile warheads with deadly VX gas and
failed to account for 200 tons of precursor chemicals for producing
VX. Iraq denied arming warheads but admitted producing 3.9 tones of
VX.
The
commission concluded that information provided by Iraq on
production, militarization and destruction of biological weapons
could not be credible and could not be verified.
"The
area of bacteriological weapons is the one which poses the most
serious questions," said Blix, who noted the "the
situation on the ground [in Iraq] could have changed," in the
absence of inspectors.
"Other
question marks have been added to the question marks which existed
in 1998 and still exist," he said, insisting on surprise
inspections and unrestricted access in Iraq, the old cause of
conflict.
UNMOVIC
has a list of hundreds of sites it would like to visit in Iraq, he
added.
Former
United Nations weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, has notably called
for an end to sanctions imposed on Iraq, saying he did not feel the
country posed a danger any longer.
He
accused the United States of deliberately provoking confrontations
with Iraq, which, he says, was almost fully disarmed by 1995.
Ritter
said the United States undermined the work of UNSCOM, the United
Nations weapons inspection team in Iraq, and used the issue to push
Iraq towards conflict with the West, according to BBC’s online
news service.
Ritter
said his team was satisfied Iraq had destroyed 98% of its weapons by
1995.
But
the U.S. Government deliberately set new standards of disarmament
criteria to maintain U.N. sanctions against Baghdad and justify
bombing raids, he added.
In
his documentary film, ‘In Shifting Sands: The Truth About UNSCOM
and the Disarming of Iraq’, which was premiered at the United
Nations, Ritter said UNSCOM chief Richard Butler told his
inspectors: "You have to provoke a confrontation...so the U.S.
can start bombing" before 15 March, a Muslim holy period, BBC
added.
Ritter,
an ex-U.S. marine intelligence officer, said Iraq "did
co-operate to a very significant degree with the U.N. inspection
process" and he blamed the United States for the eventual
breakdown of the initial purposes for the inspections.
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