Iraq press says UN must disarm Israel, not Iraq
( 2002-11-27 17:12 ) (7 )

Iraq's state-run press accused the United Nations of double standards in dealing with Iraq and Israel as UN weapons inspectors started their first field mission in Iraq in four years.

The newspapers also reiterated Iraq's long-running position that it had no weapons of mass destruction and said the inspectors' hunt would prove fuitless.

"If the Security Council is really serious about peace and security in the region, then it has to disarm the weapons of mass destruction owned by this entity (Israel)," said the daily al-Thawra. "They are the source of the threat and its basis."

Israel has missiles that can reach thousands of miles and all Arab and Islamic capitals, said al-Thawra, the mouthpiece of the ruling Baath Party.

"This entity is the only one that has absolute authority to manufacture and store weapons of mass destruction and missiles that can deliver them," al-Thawra said. "Others are slandered, pursued, and punished just on the suspicion they have got the technology to build...such weapons."

Al-Jumhuriya lambasted the United States, saying it was Washington which pulled out the inspectors in December 1998, a day before it and Britain launched an attack on Iraq.

"Everyone in the Security Council...knows that it is America and not Iraq which threatens international peace and security," al-Jumhuriya said. "America, with its actions and words, tells the world that it does what it wants."

Al-Jumhuriya quoted a 1998 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stating there was no evidence that Iraq retained any means for local production of weapons-grade nuclear materials, or had obtained such materials.

U.N. arms inspectors left their Baghdad headquarters on Wednesday to start their first field mission in Iraq in four years, armed with U.N. resolution 1441.

The resolution offers Iraq a last chance to give up its alleged weapons of mass destruction -- which it denies possessing.

Al-Qadissiya accused Washington of plotting to attack Iraq, adding "America is beating the drums of war against Iraq under pretexts and justifications that live only in the American mind ..."

Another article in al-Qadissiya said Iraq had accepted the November 8 Security Council resolution to avert an American attack, and because "it is sure that it has none of the so-called weapons of mass destruction".

(cnn.com, US)