Israel has stepped up measures against a possible strike by Iraq in case of a US-led war on Baghdad, scheduling joint exercises with US forces and gas mask lessons for children, Israeli officials said yesterday.
The preparations came amid growing talk of war since the United States last week condemned Iraq's UN-ordered declaration of its weapons programmes as a "material breach" of Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraqi disarmament.
The United States and Britain were reported at the weekend to be planning a massive seaborne invasion if war broke out against Iraq, a strategy planners hope would make troops less exposed to chemical or biological attack.
Israeli media reported Israel would go on high alert from January 15th in anticipation that hostilities would erupt in the month following January 27th, date of a report to the Security Council by United Nations arms inspection chiefs. Israel's defence ministry would not confirm the date.
UN experts in Iraq pursued their hunt for banned arms yesterday. Iraqi officials said sites searched by the inspectors included a space research centre in Baghdad.
President Saddam Hussein demanded that the United States stop harassing Iraq.
"The world should tell America now there is no need for more aggression and sanctions on Iraq in order to let it cooperate freely" with the U.N. inspectors, he told a delegation from Belarus.
Iraq said yesterday it was ready to answer any questions raised by the United States and Britain on its arms declaration, and would allow the CIA to come and identify suspect sites for weapons inspectors. The new Iraqi remarks came amid growing talk of war. - (Reuters)