- (AFP) - A top US official said that Washington's goal
remained a change of regime in Iraq even if President Saddam Hussein allows
back UN weapons inspectors.
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- "Let there be no mistake. While we also insist on
the reintroduction of the weapons inspectors, our policy at the same time
insists on regime change in Baghdad," US Under Secretary of State
John Bolton said.
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- "That policy will not be altered whether the inspectors
go in or not," he said on BBC radio.
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- US Secretary of State Colin Powell emphatically rejected
an invitation by Iraq to the chief UN weapons inspector to visit Baghdad
to discuss the resumption of inspections halted in December 1998.
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- The initiative came amid growing speculation that US
President George W. Bush was considering military action to overthrow the
Iraqi leader, whose country has been under crippling sanctions since its
invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
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- Powell, speaking to reporters in Manila, accused Iraqis
of attempting to "change the goalposts" and wriggle out of their
obligations.
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- As Washington stepped up its rhetoric, the foreign ministers
of the United States' key Gulf ally Saudi Arabia and longtime foe Iran
expressed joint opposition to any US strike action against their common
neighbour.
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- "We have always opposed any attack against an Arab
or Muslim country and that also means Iraq," Saudi Foreign Minister
Saud al-Faisal told reporters.
-
- "That is Iran's position too," said his Iranian
counterpart Kamal Kharazi. "As we have said on various occasions,
we are opposed to any attack launched against a Muslim country."
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- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also spoke out against
launching a strike against Iraq without considering the consequences for
the entire Middle East region.
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- Schroeder warned against conducting such an operation
"without thinking of the consequences, the political repercussions
for the entire Middle East."
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- "Whoever gets himself involved in that should know
what he is getting involved in and what he wants to do there," said
Schroeder, who is trailing in opinion polls as Germany heads towards a
general election in September.
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- Schroeder's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer meanwhile
said he was "deeply sceptical" about taking military action in
Iraq.
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- "To say now that it is necessary to bring about
regime change (in Iraq) though armed intervention is, in my opinion, a
poor choice of priorities," Fischer said in an interview with ZDF
public television.
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- The United States accuses Saddam of building up weapons
of mass destruction, with Bush declaring Iraq part of an "axis of
evil" alongside Iran and North Korea.
-
- Schroeder's conservative rival for the chancellorship,
Edmund Stoiber, refused to be drawn on whether he would back any attack,
saying it was a "hypothetical question", while calling for the
return of the UN inspectors.
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- "We have to know: what sort of criminal weapons
does Iraq, Saddam Hussein possess -- biological, atomic, bacteriological?
To that we need inspectors in the country," he told German television
Deutsche Welle.
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- The United Nations will not lift crippling sanctions
imposed on Baghdad until arms inspectors certify that Iraq does not have
a programme to build weapons of mass destruction.
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