British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon said the international community must demonstrate to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein that it was serious about enforcing U.N. resolutions on weapons of mass destruction. "We need to demonstrate to Saddam Hussein that we mean business, that we're not simply going to pass resolutions and not see them enforced," Hoon said after talks with his Turkish counterpart, Vecdi Gonul, in Ankara Wednesday.
In Baghdad, a top Iraqi official said the United States and Britain were preparing a "devastating" war against Iraq and renewed charges that U.N. weapons inspectors were exceeding their mandate.
The remarks by Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz were made to a visiting South African delegation. "The aggressors in Washington and London are preparing for a devastating aggression against ... the people of Iraq and they would like once again to destroy the City of Peace (Baghdad) as they did in 1991," Aziz stated.
Turning to the U.N. inspectors, Aziz said their mission has strayed beyond the search for weapons of mass destruction.
"They are searching for other information about Iraq's conventional military capabilities, the Iraqi scientific and industrial capability in the civilian area, and also espionage questions," Aziz said.
Referring to Iraqi claims that inspectors were seeking to recruit key Iraqis, Aziz said a scientist from Baghdad's Mustansiryia University was asked by inspectors whether his salary was enough for him. "What has this question to do with the matter of weapons of mass destruction?" Aziz asked.
The Iraqi official added his country's standoff with the United States was not about weapons of mass destruction, but rather the destruction of what he called the "strongest country of the area." Iraq was fully cooperating with the inspectors, he claimed, according to Reuters.
"The real motives behind the whole fuss created by Bush and Blair are imperialist motives ... they would like to destroy Iraq being the strongest country of the area, the most independent among them, they want to destroy it and then take the whole region in their hands with all its riches, mainly oil," he said.
On Wednesday, the U.N. inspectors visited eight sites that included three cement factories and a missile solid fuel factory, all south of Baghdad. They also visited Saddam University's medical school in Baghdad, a pharmaceutical company in the northern town of Mosul and a maintenance workshop at the Irrigation Ministry.
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
