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Iraq's move a cynical ploy: Britain
01/03/2003 15:58 - (SA)
Southport, England - Britain on Saturday brushed aside Iraq's decision to start destroying banned missiles as a cynical moved aimed simply at gaining time and avoiding war.
"It's a very familiar pattern," said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
"Iraq first declares a total 'zero', saying they have nothing illegal whatever to declare. Then, under pressure, they cynically trickle out concessions to divide the (UN) Security Council, buy time, and avert military action while continuing concealment.
Iraq on Saturday began to destroy four of its banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles - which UN experts say breach the 150km limit under disarmament terms - in the presence of Iraqi and UN officials.
"The two key words in (UN) Resolution 1441 are full and immediate: full and immediate compliance; full and immediate co-operation; full and immediate disarmament of his weapons of mass destruction," Straw told members of parliament from his Labour party at a meeting in this northwestern English town.
"Even if (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) were to destroy his Al-Samoud missiles, enormous stocks of poisonous chemicals and diseases would remain in the hands of (his) regime," Straw said.
When he arrived at the conference centre Straw was greeted by around 150 protestors gathered under a banner reading: "Don't Attack Iraq, Jack, Not In My Name."
Russia has hailed the Iraqi missiles move as proof of Baghdad's co-operation with UN weapons inspectors, but the United States has dismissed it as a propaganda stunt.
The United States and Britain have together massed more than 225 000 troops in the Gulf for a possible war, which they claim is being mounted in order to rid Iraq of its alleged arsenal of banned weapons.
Straw said on Saturday that "without a credible threat of force there would have been no UN inspectors in Iraq, and to ease that pressure now would be a disaster for the United Nations.
"But it would be another betrayal of the Iraqi people too," he said.
"It is they who remain the most likely victims of Saddam's weapons, and their continued suffering at the hands of a regime which routinely uses torture, rape and death as a means of maintaining control should tug at the conscience of the world.
"For them, their country has been at war for many years - a war that will only end when Saddam goes," the British foreign secretary said.
"So, if the overthrow of the regime becomes the only way of disarming Iraq and implementing the will of the United Nations, I have no doubt that we will be doing so with the support of the Iraqi people.
"Their interests will be paramount and we will work with them to rebuild their country after years of oppression and economic ruin."
Straw added that "this whole crisis would be at an end if he (Saddam) was to say I am now going to be in complete, immediate and full compliance of Resolution 1441." - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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