IRAQ: IRAQI VICE-PRESIDENT TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN SAYS IRAQ HAS NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOR THE ARMS EXPERTS TO FIND

Record ID: 442989

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQI VICE-PRESIDENT TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN SAYS IRAQ HAS NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOR THE ARMS EXPERTS TO FIND
  • Date: 4th December 2002
  • Summary: (U7)BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 4, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 0.08 2. SLV AUDIENCE 0.11 3. SLV OF NEWS CONFERENCE 0.15 4. SLV OF AUDIENCE 0.18 5. SV IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN APPROACHING MICROPHONE/SECURITY (2 SHOTS) 0.26 6. MCU/SLV (Arabic) IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN SAYING: "If the provocation causes an aggression, this means that the aggression has become a game, so if the inspectors will be causing aggression, this will be rejected by Iraq." "If the inspectors are indeed doing their job, then their mission will successfully be completed quickly and the world will realise Iraq's truthfulness in that it does not possess any weapons of mass destruction." "I am not convinced that there is a mission for the inspectors and you will find that the first sites that they (inspectors) have visited are the same sites that the British Prime Minister and Bush were told by special intelligence, were sites where weapons of mass destruction were produced." (3 SHOTS) 1.29 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA705SR2N1L8IIGJNERE0Z7HUL2
  • Story Text: Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, in a
    blistering attack, has accused U.N. inspectors hunting for
    banned weapons in Iraq of being U.S. and Israeli spies.



    Ramadan, speaking after meeting an Egyptian delegation
    in a Baghdad hotel on Wednesday (December 4), reiterated
    Iraq's official line that it has no weapons of mass
    destruction for the arms experts to find.

    "If the inspectors are indeed doing their job, then their
    mission will successfully be completed quickly and the world
    will realise Iraq's truthfulness in that it does not possess
    any weapons of mass destruction," Ramadan said in remarks to
    reporters following his meeting with the Egyptian delegation.

    Ramadan had earlier asserted in the meeting with the
    Egyptians that the inspectors' foremost work was spying.

    "I am not convinced that there is a mission for the
    inspectors and you will find that the first sites that they
    (inspectors) have visited are the same sites that the British
    Prime Minister and Bush were told by special intelligence,
    were sites where weapons of mass destruction were produced,"
    Ramadan later told reporters, referring to the U.S. Central
    Intelligence Agency.

    Ramadan said the inspection by the U.N. experts of one of
    Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's palaces in Baghdad on Tuesday
    (December 3) amounted to provocation.

    The inspectors have been searching for alleged banned
    weapons in Iraq for the past week, armed with the tough
    Security Council resolution which gives Baghdad a last chance
    to disarm or face war.

    Ramadan said the "dirty" resolution itself was a "disgrace
    on the forehead of all those who voted for it".

    One member of the Egyptian delegation shouted: "With our
    souls, with our blood, we redeem Iraq."
    Ramadan said Iraq was devoid of banned weapons.

    Ramadan urged journalists to continue covering the work of
    the inspectors, which he called "this suspect activity".

    Journalists are barred for entering Iraqi sites during the
    inspections but are allowed to tour them after the U.N.

    experts leave.

    Ramadan said that in case of an attack the "people of Iraq
    will fight, and will teach the enemy a lesson that they will
    not forget".

    Inspections resumed on November 27 after a four-year gap.

    They have so far examined 20 suspect sites.



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