IRAN WELCOME BUSH OFFERING SADDAM A WAY OUT
PARIS 8 Oct. (IPS) The Islamic Republic welcomed cautiously US President George W. Bush Tuesday speech, stressing that attacking Iraq was not a "sine quoi none" condition.
In an address to the nation, president Bush said Saddam Hoseyn must disarm himself or the United States would do it "for the sake of peace".
"That President Bush, listening to his European partners, mostly the French and the Russians, has left some maneuvering room for both the United Nations and Iraq is encouraging", an Iranian official told Iran Press Service, speaking on condition on anonymity.
He said the fact that nowhere in his address the American leader did not mentioned the Islamic Republic as an "evil state" also pleased the Iranian officials, who saw it as a "positive gesture".
As President Bush was speaking, an American marine got killed and another wounded
by gunmen in the
Persian Gulf Sheykhdom of Kuwait, where Americans and Kuwaiti forces were engaged in a
military exercise.
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior confirmed, saying that "American forces in Kuwait were exposed to a terrorist attack in which one soldier died and another injured. The two Kuwaiti assailants were also died after American troops fired back at them".
The statement identified the assailants as Anas Ahmad Adelraheem Al-Kandari, 21, and Jassim Hamad Mubarak Salem Al-Hajri, 26, but did not say if the attackers belonged to al-Qa’eda network, the organisation led by Osma Ben Laden and believed to be behind the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington D. C.
President Bush, speaking on the first anniversary of American military intervention in Afghanistan, warned that Iraq could equip terrorists with chemical or biological weapons on "any given day" and demanded that Baghdad "disarm or face US-led military action".
"Saddam Hoseyn threatens the United States and its allies and the danger
only grows worse with time", Mr Bush said, adding: "The time for
denying, deceiving and delaying has come to an end".
On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said Moscow's
position on Iraq corresponded to that of France and rejected U.S. draft
proposals saying they contained "knowingly unfulfillable demands."
The French proposal provides for a two-tier approach to solving the Iraq crisis, giving Baghdad a chance to cooperate with U.N. arms inspections, with the use of force then becoming an option in a second U.N. resolution if Iraq does not comply.
"Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists" Bush said.
In Tehran, former president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also expressed similar concern by expressing concern that in case Washington attacks Iraq, the Iraqi dictator might use chemical or biological weapons against Iran.
"Danger of such attack (from Iraq) is serious and Iran, based on the experience it has acquired during war with Iraq, can help the world avoiding such danger", he said, but did not say how?
An Iraqi opposition radio station based in Saudi Arabia confirmed Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s concerns, saying Saddam Hoseyn had plans to attack Iran with chemical and microbes weapons, as it did during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War.
Though the Iranian ruling ayatollahs have declared their opposition to any American "unilateral" attack on Iraq aimed at toppling Mr. Hoseyn’s regime, the majority of Iranians are in favour of supporting Washington.
Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami, the secretary general of Islamic Iran Participation Front and the younger brother of the President has said that the day Saddam Hoseyn is toppled "would be the sweetest day for Iranians".
"President Bush has put some water in his anti-Iraqi rhetoric as an opinion poll shows most American are concerned more about the economic situation at home than the war with Iraq", the official told IPS, adding that "however, as formulated, President Bush’s proposals would certainly be rejected by Iraq, as it amounts to Saddam’s drinking his own cup of poison. ENDS BUSH IRAQ STATEMENT 81002