- (AFP) -- Baghdad accused US President George W. Bush
of seeking to exploit the United Nations to legitimize an attack against
Iraq after most world leaders gave the thumbs down to his war plans.
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- "Bush wants to use the United Nations to implement
and confer international legitimacy on his aggressive plots against Iraq
after most world leaders came out against the unilateral (military) campaign
Washington is preparing to wage," wrote the daily Ath-Thawra hours
before the US leader was due to deliver a key speech before the UN General
Assembly.
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- Bush's decision to "court" the United Nations
in no way meant that he respected the world body or its resolutions and
conventions, said Ath-Thawra, which speaks for Iraq's ruling Baath Party.
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- What it means is that he wants to use the United Nations
to serve his foreign policy agenda, the paper said.
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- To that end, Bush will not hesitate to resort to "cheap,
unconvincing lies," said the official daily Al-Jumhuriya.
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- Bush and his administration are spreading "lies"
about Iraq's pursuit of prohibited weapons in an effort to whip up "hysteria"
around the world and secure a "cover" for their planned aggression,
the paper said.
-
- Bush, whose declared goal is to oust President Saddam
Hussein, was expected to tell the General Assembly that Baghdad's alleged
drive to acquire weapons of mass destruction posed a major threat to world
peace.
-
- Hours before Bush was due to seek world support for action
against Iraq, the White House released a 22-page indictment of Saddam,
accusing the Iraqi leader of seeking weapons of mass destruction and backing
terrorism in a "decade of deception and defiance."
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- Bush "will merely repeat the lies his administration
has been peddling in a bid to justify its aggressive policies against the
international community," Salem al-Kubaissi, who heads the Iraqi parliament's
Arab and international relations committee, told AFP.
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- The US administration decided that Bush should address
the United Nations after it "failed to win over world public opinion,
and even American public opinion, or find allies" for its planned
"aggression" against Iraq, he said.
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- But the international community will hopefully "uphold
the truth and ignore the pressures and lies which the head of the administration
of evil will mouth before the UN," Kubaissi added.
-
- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a speech released
11 hours before delivery Thursday, was due to warn the United States from
the General Assembly rostrum about the dangers of acting alone against
Iraq.
-
- In the address, Annan acknowledges that the UN Charter
gives every country the right to self-defense if attacked, but adds: "When
states decide to use force to deal with broader threats to international
peace and security, there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy provided
by the United Nations."
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- Annan was due to address the Assembly at 10:00 am (1400
GMT), immediately before the start of its nine-day debate of world leaders.
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- The UN chief will not refer directly to the United States,
but the thrust of his remarks is unmistakable.
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- Annan will also say that Iraq's refusal to comply with
UN demands that it disarm is one of "four threats to world peace,"
the others being the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the continuing instability
in Afghanistan, and tensions between India and Pakistan.
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- He will urge Iraq to comply with UN Security Council
resolutions, "for the sake of its own people and for the sake of world
order," and he will appeal to any country that has influence with
Iraqi leaders "to impress on them the vital importance of accepting
the (resumption of UN) weapons inspections."
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