Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused UN inspectors of engaging in "intelligence work" instead of searching for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons Iraq has denied it is hiding.
The inspectors were interested in collecting names of Iraqi scientists, putting questions to them that indicate "hidden agendas" and gathering information about military facilities, Saddam said in a televised speech marking Iraq's Army Day.
"All or most" of such activities "constitute purely intelligence work," Saddam said.
Under a Security Council resolution passed in November, wea-pons inspectors are in the country to establish whether Iraq still has chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or the means to deliver them.
Iraq has denied it has such weapons, but the US and Britain have accused it of hiding banned arms.
US President George W. Bush and other US officials have threatened to attack Iraq and topple Saddam's regime if it does not eliminate all weapons of mass destruction as required by UN resolutions adopted after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday said that war with Iraq had become less likely. But Straw, speaking in an interview with BBC radio, wouldn't say why he thought the chances of war had diminished.
"I've repeated that war is not inevitable and that the preference of the international community is for [the situation] to be resolved peacefully," Straw said.
In his speech, Saddam accused the US of trying to push the UN inspectors to go beyond the declared objective of the Security Council, "even in the bad resolution issued in its name," specifically mentioning American efforts to persuade the inspection teams to be more aggressive about questioning Iraqi scientists about the country's arms programs.
Saddam did not say whether his suspicions about the inspectors would lead Iraq to stop cooperating with them. Other Iraqi officials have expressed concerns about the manner in which the inspectors were carrying out their work, but said Iraq would continue to cooperate to prove it has no banned weapons and to avoid war.
Early last month, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan accused the inspectors of gathering intelligence for Washington and Israel, saying "their work is to spy to serve the CIA and Mossad."
Ramadan's accusations followed a surprise search of one of Saddam's palaces, and were quickly denied by Ewen Buchanan, a spokesman for chief inspector Hans Blix.
Buchanan said Blix has made clear that anyone found working for individual governments rather than the UN Security Council would be fired.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique