IRAQ: Iraq's Information and Culture Minister, Mr Muhammad Said Sahhaf, said on Saturday that the US was lying to the world by claiming that Baghdad poses a threat. Washington's real motive for attacking Iraq was to seize control of its oil, he asserted.
Military action to topple the Iraqi President, Mr Saddam Hussein, would fail. "They [the Bush administration], their sons and grandsons will be changed and nothing will be changed in Iraq," Mr Sahaf asserted. "The regime that is chosen by the people can't be changed by foreigners." Mr. Sahaf, who was in the Jordanian capital for the opening of a cultural week, said that Iraq has "nothing to do with the United States, but it takes us for an enemy." In his view, ongoing contacts between the US President, Mr George Bush, and world leaders "is part of a fraudulent public relations campaign. Let them stop this crap. They have ambitions and these ambitions will be destroyed at the gates of Iraq." Mr Sahhaf, a former foreign minister, seems to be playing "bad cop" to the "good cop" role assumed by the current holder of the foreign portfolio, Mr Naji Sabri. In an interview published in the Saudi daily, al-Watan, he said that Iraq would accept the return of UN weapons inspectors under a comprehensive package providing a time table for ending the punitive sanctions regime imposed 12 years ago. Mr Sabri also repeated Iraq's invitation to US congressmen and arms experts to verify that Iraq does not have arms of mass destruction, as alleged by the US and UK. "They are spreading lies about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction to influence naive people in their countries and Europe who do not understand technical matters," he asserted, adding, "All Iraq's banned weapons were "destroyed between 1991 and 1998 when the inspectors left." The UN Secretary General, Mr Amr Mousa, adopted an upbeat attitude during a visit to Italy."There is a strong possibility that the inspectors will go back," he stated, "especially after consultations between the government of Iraq and the UN Security Council." While the league has declared its opposition to military action which could have dire consequences for the entire region, Mr Mousa and several member states have urged Iraq to allow the resumption of inspections, halted in 1998 ahead of 72 hours of intensive Anglo-US airstrikes.
