Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed news that the head of the U.N. weapons inspection team was invited for talks in Baghdad by Iraq, deemed by President Bush as part of an "axis of evil."
Published:
4 August 2002 y., Sunday
The invitation from Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri was delivered to weapons inspector Hans Blix by way of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"There is no need for further clarification or discussion. The approach is clear," Powell said.
He said the issue is not so much inspections but "making sure that the Iraqis have no weapons of mass destruction."
Iraq agreed to dispose of such weapons as part of an agreement to end the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Saddam Hussein stopped Iraq's cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors in 1998, and the inspectors left in December just before the United States and Britain launched a punitive attack by warplanes and cruise missiles. Iraq has not allowed the inspectors back since.
Iraq began signaling an interest in permitting the inspectors to return after Bush said in January that Iraq was part of the "axis of evil" along with Iran and North Korea. But the administration has seen these overtures as Iraq's way of buying time.
Šaltinis:
foxnews.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
On 9 August, Daiva Valerija Čekanauskas-Navarrette started her duties as the new Lithuania’s Honorary Consul in the United States.
more »
On 10 August in Washington, Lithuania’s Ambassador Žygimantas Pavilionis presented his credentials to President of the United States of America Barack Obama.
more »
Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs sent letters of condolences to his Russian counterpart S. Lavrov and Minister of Transport, co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Lithuanian-Russian Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, Humanitarian and Cultural Cooperation I. Levitin, expressing his condolences regarding the victims of violent forest fires in Russia.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė sent congratulations on behalf of herself and the people of Lithuania to the President of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov, on Macedonia's national holiday, the Day of the Republic.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė sent congratulations on behalf of herself and the people of Lithuania to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss National Day.
more »
On 29 July in Vilnius, at a convention of country chairmen of the Lithuanian World Community and the Lithuanian Youth Union, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis invited world Lithuanians to engage actively in the discussion on the strategy of “Global Lithuania”.
more »
On 27 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis sent a letter to Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade Össur Skarphéðinsson congratulating Iceland on the start of EU membership negotiations.
more »
On 26 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis sent a letter to Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle expressing his condolences to the families and relatives of the victims , who died during a techno music festival in Duisburg.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė received letters of credence from Mr. Nguyen Hoang as the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Mr. Deepak Vohra as the Ambassador of the Republic of India.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė received Eastern European political business and public women leaders.
more »