arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Iraq now expects war with US

Ewen MacAskill in Baghdad
Tuesday May 7, 2002
The Guardian

Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, provided a bleak assessment yesterday of the country's chances of averting war with the US.
He was speaking the day after the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, indicated that America might take action even if Baghdad were to allow UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq.

The hardening of lines in both Washington and Baghdad may be diplomatic manoeuvring before a UN deal, but the tone in Baghdad has altered dramatically from last week, when Iraqi officials were publicly predicting that Saddam Hussein would allow the weapons inspectors back.

In a rare interview, Mr Aziz questioned whether George Bush and Tony Blair were genuine about wanting to establish whether Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction or were looking for a pretext to attack.

Asked about the fear of civilian casualties from a US onslaught if no agreement was reached, he said: "When you have a terrorist [the US] who acts alone to reach his greedy ambitions, what choice do you have except to try to minimise civilian casualties? Sometimes, you have no other choice but to defend yourself."

He was speaking at the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad to a group of British parliamentarians and journalists.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, held three days of talks with Iraqi officials in New York last week on the issue of weapons inspectors. Mr Annan described the meetings as positive and a further meeting is planned within a month.

Mr Aziz did not share this optimism. "Even if Mr Annan reaches agreement with our foreign minister, he has to take it to the US."

He challenged Mr Blair to provide evidence that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction and renewed an offer to let a British team visit Iraq to investigate. He also challenged Mr Blair to a televised debate on the issue.

Mr Aziz said that Iraq was willing to reach a compromise but the inspectors' mandate should not be open-ended, as it was between 1991 and 1998, when the inspectors left complaining that Iraq was obstructing their work. US and British planes subsequently bombed sites round Baghdad.

Asked point-blank if Iraq would allow the inspectors to return, he said: "I am not saying no, but we have the experience of a whole decade."

If the inspectors returned they might complain of lack of cooperation on a flimsy issue, he said, and that would provide a pretext for a US attack.

In a worrying indication that Iraq may be digging in, he refused to say whether Iraq would let inspectors visit Saddam Hussein's presidential palace: a cause of much friction between Iraq and the inspectors in the 90s.

Mr Aziz said that only a fool would have thought during the second world war that Britain was hiding a weapons factory under King George's palace, but he refused to say whether presidential sites could be opened in the future