- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday there was no argument for a U.S.
strike against Iraq before late January, while ordinary Iraqis held out
hope that the New Year would bring no war at all.
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- Annan said Iraq was cooperating with arms inspections
and he saw no need for military action until inspectors searching for suspected
weapons of mass destruction report back to the U.N. Security Council by
Jan. 27.
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- "I really do not see any basis for an action until
then, particularly as (the inspectors) are able to carry out their work
in an unimpeded manner," Annan said in an interview with Israel's
Army Radio monitored in Jerusalem.
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- On the streets of Baghdad, Iraqis were hoping for more
than a stay of execution.
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- "God willing, peace will prevail in Iraq in the
New Year and the phantom of war will be lifted," said Samer al-Amiri,
52, sipping black tea in a cafe in the Iraqi capital.
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- The United States already has declared Baghdad in material
breach of a Security Council resolution giving Iraq one last chance to
disarm or face "serious consequences."
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- EIGHT SITES VISITED
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- Baghdad says it has no banned weapons and tensions over
inspections were high Tuesday despite Annan's insistence they were running
smoothly.
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- The U.N. arms experts swooped on at least eight suspect
sites in central Iraq, and the head of an engineering facility described
their conduct as provocative and annoying.
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- "They looked at personal documents and searched
everything, including briefcases of the employees and drawers in an annoying
way, and even notebooks of some of the ladies were looked into thoroughly,"
said Riyadh Khalil al-Hashimi, head of engineering and designing firm Sa'ad
General Company.
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- The official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said Tuesday Iraq
has invited chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix to visit Baghdad to
"review cooperation" in January, before the experts report back
to the Security Council.
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- Monday, the United States won approval for a new Security
Council resolution, co-sponsored by Britain, aimed at preventing Iraq from
importing goods which could be used in war.
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- The 15-nation council voted 13-0 to expand the list of
civilian goods under sanctions. Russia and Syria abstained.
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- IRAQ COMPLAINS
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- Iraqi envoy Mohammed S. Ali said the resolution would
aggravate the suffering of the Iraqi people, which could be eased only
by a lifting of U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of neighboring
Kuwait.
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- The resolution modified a "goods review list"
itemizing goods Iraq is barred from importing without U.N. approval.
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- Additions to the list range from drugs to protect Iraqi
soldiers from both anthrax and poison gas to boats similar to the one used
in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen two years ago. Electronic gear
that could jam global positioning systems used to guide some U.S. smart
bombs will also come under review.
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- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, providing the logic
for a possible reversal in his strong anti-war stance, said that force
was sometimes needed against dictators.
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- "We Germans know from our own experience that sometimes
only violence can stop dictators," Schroeder said in his New Year's
televised address to the nation. "But we also know what bombs, destruction
and losses at home mean for people."
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- Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said he feared Israel
might exploit a war in Iraq to escalate its own military attacks against
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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- "The ghost of war that overshadows the Middle East
represents today an open chance for the government of Israel and its occupation
army to pursue its destructive war against our Palestinian people,"
said Arafat, speaking at a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
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