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Iraq: U.S. has 'over-reacted'
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A senior Iraqi official says the United States over-reacted by saying Iraq's weapons declaration was a "material breach" of a U.N. Security Council resolution. "This is an exaggerated response," General Hussam Mohammed Amin told Reuters when asked to comment on U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's criticism of the 12,000-page dossier. "It was political," Amin, the chief Iraqi official liaising with U.N. weapons inspectors, said by telephone. "Even before they were able to read and analyse the declaration they said it had many gaps." "The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and UNMOVIC (U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) are the correct organizations to analyze the declaration," he said. Powell said Thursday that Iraq was in "material breach" of last month's U.N. resolution by failing to make a full disclosure of its weapons programmes. (Powell lays out path) The United States has threatened to lead a coalition to disarm Iraq by force if it did not abide by the U.N. resolution. On Friday chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said he was not receiving as much support as he would like from the U.S. and U.K. governments, which have intelligence sources that the United Nations lacks, and he asked them to provide more material (Full story) Amin, head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, said Baghdad stood ready to provide any clarifications the U.N. teams sought, as it had done with their predecessors. Meanwhile an Iraqi minister sought help from fellow Arabs Friday to fend off a possible U.S.-led attack, which he said was a threat to the whole region. "We hope that all Arab brothers would stand by the Iraqi people and Iraq to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, which is being threatened by America, Britain and the Zionist entity (Israel)," Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh told al-Jazeera television. Speaking from the United Arab Emirates, he said Washington and its allies were trying to redraw the map of the region: "They aim to partition the Arab nation starting by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and neighbouring countries, Iran and Turkey." Only the United States has said Iraq is in material breach of Security Council resolution 1441, which gave Baghdad a last chance to disarm or face serious consequences. Britain, Washington's closest ally, described the Iraqi dossier as "deeply disappointing," but stopped short of using the phrase that could be used to trigger war against Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair put the country's armed forces on a war footing Friday. In a Christmas message, he told troops to be prepared for action against Iraq if Saddam Hussein fails to comply with U.N. demands to disarm. (Full story)
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