IRAQ: OIL MINISTER AMIR MUHAMMAD RASHID SAYS IRAQ WILL COOPERATE FULLY WITH U.N. WEAPONS INPECTORS
Record ID:
344920
IRAQ: OIL MINISTER AMIR MUHAMMAD RASHID SAYS IRAQ WILL COOPERATE FULLY WITH U.N. WEAPONS INPECTORS
- Title: IRAQ: OIL MINISTER AMIR MUHAMMAD RASHID SAYS IRAQ WILL COOPERATE FULLY WITH U.N. WEAPONS INPECTORS
- Date: 17th December 2002
- Summary: (U7) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 15, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SCU ZOOM OUT INTERVIEW WITH IRAQ OIL MINISTER AMIR MUHAMMAD RASHID 0.09 2. SOUNDBITE (English) IRAQ OIL MINISTER AMIR MUHAMMAD RASHID, SAYING "Iraq because of it's responsibility and because of it's understanding of the greater political situation, and it has agreed to deal with the resolution 1441, it will not give American administration the chance and the possibility to create a confrontation, and we hope very much that the inspectors will continue in their professional and normal practice as International inspectors and not as tools of American administration and CIA. The practice of the inspectors over the last few weeks is very positive, we don't have any criticism of it, and the world will see that all that has been said by the Americans and the British is pure fabrication and pure lies." 1.10 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st January 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVADPZQP6QGXVAM5EHU7CQMS6QMV
- Story Text: Iraq will co-operate fully with U.N. inspectors to
disprove U.S. and British accusations that it still has
weapons of mass destruction, Oil Minister Amir Muhammad
Rashid has announced.
Asked on Sunday (December 15, 2002) if Iraq would comply
with a U.N. demand for a list of scientists associated with
its weapons programmes, Rashid said: "They will try many
questions. We will deal with them."
The practice of the inspectors over the last few weeks is
very positive, we don't have any criticism of it, he told
Reuters in an interview.
"The world will see that all that has been said by the
Americans and the British is pure fabrication and pure lies,"
he said.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix wrote to an Iraqi
official on Thursday demanding the list of arms scientists by
the end of the month. Last month's U.N. resolution 1441 gives
the inspectors the right to interview Iraqi scientists in
private, inside or outside the country.
Rasheed, who used to supervise Iraq's weapons programmes
before becoming oil minister in 1995, praised the way the new
U.N. inspectors were doing their job.
"We hope very much that the inspectors will continue in
their professional and normal practice as international
inspectors and not as tools of the American administration and
the CIA as before," he added.
Baghdad had accused some members of the previous U.N.
inspection body, UNSCOM, of spying for the United States and
Israel in the 1990s.
U.N. experts on Sunday scoured nine suspect sites, many of
which had been inspected in the past.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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