An adviser to President Saddam Hussein questions the right of the US administration to seek regime change in Iraq, Lara Marlowe in Paris, reports
Dr Abdelrazak El Hashemi is an adviser to President Saddam Hussein. A former cabinet minister who served as Iraq's ambassador to Paris until the outbreak of the 1991 Gulf War, he still speaks with the American accent he picked up as a geology student at Boston University decades ago.
"We know how to defend Iraq," he insisted in a meeting with the Arab Press Club in Paris. "In 1991 it was a world war against us. There were 3,000 planes, more than 3,500 tanks, 2,000 armoured cars, 28 armies. A half million soldiers participated in that war."
The presidential adviser did not mention that the US simply stopped fighting once it had liberated Kuwait.
"Iraq has survived thousands of years," he continued. "Who is Bush to tell me: 'change your president or else . . . '? Who gave him that right? On what legal grounds is he announcing that he wants to change the system of government in Iraq? He can go and jump in the lake! Whatever he says, whatever he threatens, the leadership of Iraq is an affair of the Iraqi people."
To prove it, the people of Iraq are to re-elect Saddam for another seven-year term in a "popular referendum" next week.
Dr Hashemi sees Washington's threats against Baghdad as the logical consequence of the security doctrine which Mr Bush delivered to Congress last month. "They say that the US should maintain its military superiority over the rest of the world forever, and that they must destroy any terrorist threat before it reaches American borders," he explains. "That means that every country in the world is open to US pre-emptive strikes, based on what the Bush administration calls the 'destructive intentions of our enemies'. You are an enemy of the US based on what you think."
There is an obstacle to this US policy, Dr Hashemi says. "The world community will never accept it, because it will turn the world into a jungle if implemented. It will annihilate the UN Charter; there will be no respect for the independence or territorial integrity of nations."
That's where Iraqi oil comes in. "The American administration needs something to control, to press, to blackmail the world to achieve their military doctrine," Saddam's adviser continues. "The US already monopolises the world's largest oil reserves in Saudi Arabia. If they can seize Iraqi oil fields, the 21st century will be American. The Europeans and the rest of the world will have to buy from American oil companies at $200 a barrel."
A US Security Council resolution would require Iraq to list all of its weapons of mass destruction and destroy them before the return of UN weapons inspectors, he says. "We don't have any weapons of mass destruction. They say: 'you have to destroy them'. The solution is for the inspectors to go back to Iraq to prove it. Without the inspectors returning, it's America's word against ours. It is impossible for Iraq to prove we don't have something; how can you prove a negative?"
Baghdad dislikes French attempts to reach a compromise within the Security Council. "They say the unity of the Security Council is important, but it cannot be at the expense of Iraq," Dr Hashemi says. The French proposals would still enable the US to attack Iraq. "So we hope [the French] will give up on this 'two-stage' resolution because it would endorse the impossible conditions of the US administration. They could say Iraq was not implementing resolutions and the outcome would be the same."
European governments are divided over Iraq. But "European public opinion is the most important development in dealing with American unilateralism," Dr Hashemi says. An anti-war demonstration is scheduled to take place in Paris tomorrow.
"The European public are showing they are aware of what is happening by voting against American unilateral action, as shown by the election in Germany." Trade is one reason why Europe should thwart US plans, Dr Hashemi argues. "In the committee responsible for implementing the oil-for-food programme, 2,500 contracts worth $8.5 billion have been put on hold by US and British representatives. And a lot of those contracts are European. They say they are 'dual use' items. What is not of dual use today? Take this pen. You can use it to write love letters. Or you can write an equation for an atomic bomb with it. Does that mean I should not be allowed to have a pen?"
The "smart sanctions" intended to punish the Iraqi regime have resulted in a "Goods Review List" 250 pages long, Dr Hashemi says. "They say they are making sanctions easier on the people of Iraq; on the contrary," he adds.
Baghdad has sent envoys to neighbouring countries, including Turkey, a NATO member. Ankara says it is against military intervention in Iraq. "We told them that the no-fly zone in northern Iraq could not be enforced if the US didn't use Incirlik base (in Turkey). There are bases for the (Turkish Kurdish separatist) PKK in the zone. The American intervention in northern Iraq has created problems for Turkey since 1991."
Dr Hashemi mocked the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, for changing his allegation that al-Qaeda operatives were in northern Iraq after it was pointed out to him that northern Iraq is not under central government control.
The Iraqi official says Baghdad gave weapons and ammunition to the Kurdish leader, Mr Jalal Talabani, to fight infiltrators from Ansar al-Islam - non-Iraqi Arabs linked to al-Qaeda - two months ago, although Mr Talabani opposes Saddam.
"Talabani requested help," Dr Hashemi explains. "Believe it or not; we gave it to him, because this is Iraq." The Iraqi foreign minister travelled to Tehran a few days ago, raising the possibility of co-operation within what Mr Bush calls "the axis of evil".
It was in both countries' interest to speed up normalisation, Dr Hashemi said. Outstanding disagreements include a fleet of Iraqi airliners grounded in Tehran since 1990, and Iraqi prisoners in Iran since the 1980s. "These problems can be solved through dialogue."
But on the other great regional question - Israel - there could be no compromise, the Iraqi presidential adviser said. Most Arabs would accept a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, but Iraq wants "the whole Palestine, since 1948".
Israel was founded by a UN resolution, a journalist protested. "And Israel is defying dozens of resolutions," Dr Hashemi snapped back. "The Security Council has no power to kick you out of your own house. That is what happened in 1948. Israel is a colonial power. It has to come to an end."
Dr Hashemi provided an official explanation of the recent death of the Palestinian hired killer Abu Nidal in Baghdad. "Abu Nidal left Iraq in '91," he said. "But he came back illegally, carrying a Yemeni passport. He entered Iraq from al Mundhiriya, on the Iranian border. He got in because no visa is required of Yemenis. The authorities went to capture him and deport him. He said he wanted to change his clothes. While they were waiting for him, they heard a gunshot. When they went in his room, they saw he had committed suicide. That is the story of Abu Nidal."