Iran wants former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, whose Baghdad trial resumed on Wednesday, to be charged with ordering poison gas attacks that killed thousands of Iranian civilians during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, a top Iranian official said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saddam had used chemical weapons to kill Iranians during the war, especially in Iran's northwestern Kurdish area, flattening entire villages and destroying farms.
"Iran is the main victim of chemical weapons. Saddam's use of chemicals was against international laws," Mottaki told reporters in a hospital where he was visiting "living martyrs," wounded survivors of Saddam's chemical weapons attacks.
Mottaki said Iran had prepared a petition which the foreign ministry would pass on to the court in Baghdad.
The petition included documents that proved Iraq's use of nerve and mustard gas during the eight-year war, Mottaki said.
"During the war, Saddam used chemicals against Iran 20 times," Mottaki said, adding that some 40,000 people had been affected.
Iran has repeatedly accused the West of supplying Saddam with the technology and some of the materials to develop chemical weapons.
But Iran was deeply concerned about the influence of the US on the trial, he added.
SADDAM ACCUSES
During his trial in Iraq yesterday, Saddam accused the White House of lying, citing its prewar assertions that Iraq had chemical weapons and its denial of his statement that he had been tortured in US custody.
Speaking at the start of the seventh session of his trial on charges of crimes against humanity, Saddam rekindled his battle of words with Washington.
"The White House are liars. They said Iraq had chemical weapons," he told the court.
"They lied again when they said that what Saddam said was wrong," he added, referring to a White House dismissal of his claim that he was tortured.
Saddam made his torture allegation during Wednesday's hearing and said he had bruises on his body to prove it. He did not, however, show any bruises and the judge has so far made no public ruling on whether the allegation should be investigated.
"That's one of the most preposterous things I've heard from Saddam Hussein recently," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in Washington in response.
"Saddam Hussein is being treated the exact opposite of the way his regime treated those he imprisoned and tortured simply for expressing their opinions. And so I reject that," he said.
The judge dismissed a courtroom guard yesterday after the defendants complained he had threatened them, and Saddam's half-brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti accused prosecutors of being former fellow members of the Baath party.
"This is the biggest insult in my life, to be associated with this blood-stained party," said one prosecutor, who asked to be relieved of his duties because of personal insults from the dock -- a request dismissed by the Kurdish judge.
The first witness to testify yesterday spoke from behind a curtain to protect his identity, but, like some earlier witnesses, said nothing directly implicating either Saddam or the other defendants in the Dujail killings.
Defense lawyers questioned his reliability as a witness, pointing out he was only eight in 1982.
"This is a waste of time," one said. "He was only a child."
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS