Iraq hoped for a UN report that "will present facts as they are, that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction," Sabri said. "And we hope the Security Council will lift the criminal sanctions on the Iraqi people."
He said Powell told a "series of lies" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, over the weekend "about Iraq not cooperating over the last 11 years" with UN arms inspections.
He noted that UN monitors, in their new round of field missions in Iraq, have mounted almost 500 inspections without incident "to offices, guesthouses, mosques, universities, hospitals, factories, military sites."
"How were those things done without Iraqi cooperation?" he asked.
On scientists' interviews, he said Iraq was meeting its UN obligation by "providing access" to weapons specialists. It is "hair-splitting," he said, to complain that the handful asked to submit to interviews without an Iraqi official monitoring -- a US demand -- have refused to do so.
Inspectors feel scientists would be more candid without a government monitor present. American officials allege, without citing evidence, the Iraqi leadership has threatened to kill scientists who disclose sensitive information.
Sabri said the scientists fear, instead, that their words might be changed after private interviews. In Western countries, he asked, "can you force them to answer without the presence of their lawyer?"
He said the controversy was stirred up by the US "because they have found nothing. They have no evidence, because there is nothing."
He said of Washington and London, "their aim it to occupy the country ... to control its oil." He referred to US and British leaders as "warmongers" who "export evil to other countries."
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