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Anti-U.S. demonstrators in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila
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BAGHDAD,
October 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The head of Iraq’s
armament program invited the U.S. administration Thursday, October 10,
to immediately inspect two sites where Washington claims Baghdad has
resumed its “prohibited” weapons program.
“The
American administration can send whoever it wants to visit the An-Nasr
and Al-Furat sites, which it suspects of being used to produce weapons
of mass destruction,” said Abdel Tawab Mulla Howeish, also military
industries minister.
“If
the American administration wants to see the two sites, we urge them
to inspect them immediately,” Howeish told a press conference.
The
two sites were mentioned in the dossier British Prime Minister Tony
Blair recently released on Iraq’s arsenal, while U.S. President
George W. Bush showed a satellite photograph of Al-Furat in a speech
this week in which he threatened to disarm Baghdad by force, if
necessary, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Howeish
said sites “used to produce metal and molded structures for cement
bound for industrial and real estate construction were inspected by
the United Nations between 1992 and 1998, notably the International
Atomic Energy Agency, and were destroyed in U.S. bombings in 1991 and
1998.
“If
one of you wants to visit the two sites, we will be ready to open up
their doors so the truth becomes clear,” he told journalists.
“All
we have done is rebuild the An-Nasr site without enlarging it, while
we have undertaken no work at the Al-Furat site, which was being
constructed when it was destroyed in 1991 and which was never used,”
Howeish said.
“We
have the right to rebuild the sites and businesses that are used to
reconstruct Iraq, the bridges, the roads, the hospitals, the
residential districts that were destroyed by the treacherous
attackers.
“We
do not have weapons of mass destruction. We do not have programs or
plans to produce them and we have not violated U.N. Security Council
resolutions relating to this issue in the absence of inspectors,”
stressed Howeish.
Iraq
on September 16 accepted the unconditional return of U.N. weapons
inspectors after a near four-year pause.
But
the inspectors’ mission is currently on hold while the United States
and Britain wrangle with the other three permanent members of the
Security Council - France, Russia and China - over the need for a
tough new resolution, AFP said.
U.N.
arms chief Hans Blix and IAEA director Mohammad el-Baradei said in a
joint letter published Tuesday, October 8, that Iraq had agreed in
talks in Vienna last week that weapons inspectors would be granted
immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to sites deemed
sensitive in the past, including eight presidential palaces.
After
the press conference, Iraqi authorities took journalists on a tour of
the two sites.
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If the inspectors do a professional job they will not find weapons of mass destruction: Howeish |
If
the inspectors, on their return, “do a professional job and not
political, we are sure that they will submit a positive report on the
absence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, including the nuclear
program,” Howeish said.
He
added that if the United States were to attack Iraq, it would be
predominantly an air war. “On the ground, they won't advance more
than an inch.
“We
are a peaceful people. But when we fight, we will be ferocious because
we will fights for our lives, our land, our water, our homeland and
our future.”
At
the same time, U.S. aircraft attacked the international airport at
Basra in southern Iraq on Thursday, the third strike in two weeks,
destroying its radar system, Iraq announced.
“The
evil American crows have struck and destroyed the civilian radar
system and damaged the terminal halls,” a transport ministry
spokesman told the official satellite television channel.
Meanwhile,
anti-U.S.
demonstrations broke out in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila to
protest the U.S. moves against Iraq including a possible military
strike.
On
another frontIraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz arrived in Beirut
Thursday on a private visit from neighboring Syria, and called for
finding ways to confront U.S. threats against Baghdad.
“We
should be cautious about the US threats to strike Iraq and the way to
confront it,” said Aziz on arriving by land at the Masnaa crossing
point at the Syrian-Lebanese border.
“We
should pay attention to the U.S. threats against Baghdad and the Arab
nation,” he told reporters.
Aziz,
who was received by State Minister Beshara Merhej and Iraqi charge
d'affaires Nabil al-Janibi, will be the guest of honor at a dinner
hosted by Arab nationalist activists in Beirut Thursday.
He
was due to meet with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud on Friday,
October 11, and head back
to Damascus by land the next day.
In
Syria, Aziz accused the United States Tuesday of planning to
annihilate Iraq and divide up the Arab world to control its wealth.
He
was speaking at a Damascus conference organized by Syrian and
Jordanian non-governmental organizations that have lobbied for an end
to the crippling 12-year-old U.N. sanctions on Iraq.
