- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq
said Wednesday it was futile for the U.N. Security Council to adopt any
new resolution on Iraq because the United States was determined to go to
war and would find any pretext to do so.
-
- Washington has met widespread opposition for threatening
to attack Iraq, with or without U.N. support, to remove President Saddam
Hussein, whom it accuses of seeking weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad
denies the charge.
-
- A revised U.S. proposal aimed at ending a month-long
deadlock over Iraqi weapons inspections met fresh resistance in the U.N.
Security Council Tuesday from veto-powers Russia and France.
-
- "There is no need for the Security Council to adopt
a new resolution," Iraq's official al-Thawra daily said.
-
- "The U.S. objective is to find a new pretext to
launch its aggression on Iraq after all its other pretexts failed, and
to try to find a fake international cover for this aggression," it
declared in a front-page editorial.
-
- Iraq's official INA news agency quoted Saddam as telling
an Arab journalist that Baghdad "was determined to fight to defend
its principles, goals and role."
-
- "We will not let you down God willing. We will make
you proud," Saddam said.
-
- Washington drew up a new draft and met twice Tuesday
with permanent members of the 15-nation council who hold veto power. But
there was no sign the two sides were moving any closer to a compromise.
-
- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying
the proposed resolution on Iraq did not meet minimum requirements.
-
- "BOOBY-TRAPPED RESOLUTION"
-
- The al-Thawra editorial went on: "The evil Bush
administration has opposed and is still opposing the will of the nations.
It is now seeking a new booby-trapped Security Council resolution to use
eventually as a pretext for a new aggression on Iraq with a fake international
cover."
-
- It said the credibility of the U.N. was damaged when
it bowed to American pressure not to let weapons inspectors return to Baghdad
this month to resume their work despite an agreement reached with Iraq.
-
- "This is a violation, a blatant humiliation of the
international organization and a total submission of the Security Council
to American pressure," al-Thawra said.
-
- "This Council that demands that others respect their
commitments is not respecting its own," it added.
-
- Babel, the newspaper owned by Saddam's eldest son Uday,
said Iraq would exhaust "all diplomatic and political channels"
to avert U.S. military action, but added the oil-producing country of 22
million people was ready to defend itself.
-
- "We pray to God that the American aggression does
not take place. While we confirm again that we don't want war and that
it is America that is determined on war, we say America will meet heroic
resistance if it attacked," Babel said.
|
