#6
RUSSIAN EXPERTS: TO LIFT IRAQI SANCTIONS US SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE ABSENCE OF WMD IN IRAQ

MOSCOW, May 15, 2003 /from a RIA Novosti correspondent/ -- To lift the Iraqi sanctions, the US should officially acknowledge the absence of weapons of mass destruction in the country, Russian experts voiced such an opinion at a RIA Novosti round table.

The sanctions were introduced "against Iraq, not against Saddam Hussein's regime, with a view to providing against the production of weapons of mass destruction," director of the international organisations department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Granovsky said. That's why, he said, to remove the sanctions in line with the resolution, "it is necessary to certify the absence of weapons of mass destruction within a fortnight." Yuly Vorontsov, deputy Secretary General of the UN and special envoy on Iraq, said that the UN position on the Iraq issue before the war was correct. "We made efforts to solve the Iraqi problem in line with the procedure established by the UN," he said. "The UN would have supported the anti-Iraqi operation if weapons of mass destruction had been found there," Vorontsov stressed. "That was why the US cancelled the inspections, otherwise it would have been clear that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction at the disposal." Director of the Institute of the US and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Rogov believes that insisting on the removal of the anti-Iraqi sanctions, the US admits indirectly that there are no weapons of mass destruction in the country. "Yet, this [acknowledging the absence of WMD] should be legitimate, and consideration of the removal of the sanctions should be based on this [acknowledgement]," he said.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the US still hoped to find WMD in Iraq. We believe we'll find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the US Secretary of State said live to the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Thursday.

BACK TO THE TOP    #257 CONTENTS    NEXT ARTICLE