Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said in an interview with a British newspaper yesterday that the US and Britain planned to launch 1,000 missiles at 300 Iraqi targets in a bid to topple President Saddam Hussein under the pretext of waging war against terrorism.
"We know that they are preparing for such an attack," he told <
"We know that it is just a matter of time."
He added: "When they decide to attack Iraq it will be for their own agenda because they want to replace this government because it is independent and will not bow. It will not be because of what is happening in the US."
The US and Britain have said they would keep close tabs on Iraq as they move ahead with their anti-terrorism campaign following the Sept. 11 assault on New York and Washington, but have not identified the country as a target for military strikes.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Wednesday that Iraq could be a target if evidence was found linking it to specific acts of terrorism but insisted their current campaign was focused solely on Afghanistan -- accused of harboring Osama bin Laden, prime suspect of Sept. 11.
But some current and former US officials argue that Iraq could have been involved in the assaults on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the subsequent discovery in America of potentially deadly anthrax spores.
With those suspicions in mind, these officials have pressed for the military campaign on Afghanistan to be expanded to include Iraq.
Aziz said any attack would be a "very grave mistake."
"The Arab world is not going to tolerate that at all because they know that this is unjust and is sheer aggression," he told the paper.
But he said it would not launch military retaliation.
"Political actions and stances will be taken by the Arabs which will add to the isolation of the United States."
He said he hoped Britain would make a "wise" and "calculated" judgement and not join the US in the attack.
"Up until now, what I am reading and hearing ... suggests that they do not want to and I hope that their position will remain so."
The deputy prime minister said allegations that Iraq was behind the release of anthrax bacteria in the US were "baseless" and "ridiculous."
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
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A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
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