US wants excuse for war - Iraq
( 2002-11-25 11:35 ) (7 )

Even as the UN advance team prepared for Monday's arrival of the first weapons inspectors, Iraq complained Sunday to the United Nations that the United States is looking for an excuse to go to war.

Despite statements last week from chief UN inspector Hans Blix that full cooperation was expected from Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri lashed out at the United Nations in 19-page letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan dated Saturday and released Sunday.

In it, Sabri repeated previous claims that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction and that the inspections scheduled to start Wednesday are just a false pretense for the United States and Britain to attack his country.

Sabri assailed UN Security Council resolution 1441, adopted November 8, that called for Iraq to give immediate, unfettered access to weapons inspectors.

Iraq "is being subjected to terrorism for more than 30 years from international and regional powers," he wrote.

"And Iraq's under a daily aggression represented in the terrorism of the US and Britain through the imposition of the no-fly zones."

Iraq has shot at US and British aircraft repeatedly in the no-fly zones since they were established after the Persian Gulf War, and coalition aircraft have fired on Iraqi bases in response.

In the most recent action, coalition aircraft struck a mobile radar system Saturday in the southern no-fly zone, according to the US Central Command. The Iraqi News Agency said the aircraft fired on civilian and service facilities.

After Iraq fired on US and British planes last week, US officials said the attacks constituted a "material breach" of Resolution 1441, which could trigger a meeting of the UN Security Council at which the United States could call for military action against Iraq.

UN officials said the attacks did not qualify as a material breach, and President Bush did not ask for a Security Council meeting.

The outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee praised that decision Sunday.

"This seems to me to be the perfect ploy for Saddam Hussein," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, told CNN's "Late Edition."

"Get us in a fight with the United Nations over whether or not a 10-year pattern of firing at American planes is a material breach. Divide the United Nations, divide the allies on that issue.

"The president is too smart for this. We should not all play into Saddam Hussein's hands and break up this coalition," Biden said.

The president will determine when Iraq has committed a material breach that demands a meeting of the Security Council, he said.

Sabri called the resolution's language about a material breach a violation of international law.

Although Iraq has agreed to make a declaration by December 8 about weapons of mass destruction within its borders, in keeping with the resolution, Sabri said that if the nation provides inaccurate information or leaves anything out it must not be seen as a material breach, "taking into account the thousands of data to be presented."

The way the resolution is written, Sabri complained, "means that the clear objective is offering a pretext to distort Iraq's position" and launch "aggressive acts against Iraq."

The United Nations had no immediate response to the letter.

US officials have said the situation could be resolved without war if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein disarms peacefully. But military experts say America's armed forces are ready for action if necessary.

"This army is the best prepared and the most ready we've ever had," retired Army Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy told CNN Sunday.

David Grange, a retired Army brigadier general and CNN military analyst, told CNN the American military's experience in the Gulf War almost 12 years ago helped prepare it for the possible road ahead.

"It has the most experience of any army in the world," Grange said. "So it's ready."

With Wednesday as the scheduled start date for the inspections, the 38-member UN advance team brought in several tons of equipment over the weekend.

Of utmost concern was securing the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Workers installed new computers in refurbished laboratories packed with secure communications equipment.

Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Committee, or UNMOVIC, said the equipment would ensure that "in case something happens, we can communicate with each other."

Among the 18 inspectors set to arrive Monday are specialists in chemical, biological and nuclear weaponry.

The inspection team also is addressing adding more Arabs. Of the 300 on the inspection roster, six are Jordanians and one is Moroccan.