- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq
has dismissed as ``stupid'' a warning it received from United States not
to take advantage of the Western campaign against Afghanistan to launch
military action in the region.
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- In a rare meeting with Iraqi diplomats, the chief U.S.
envoy to the United Nations, John Negroponte, warned on Sunday night that
Iraq would pay a heavy price if it used the current situation to act against
its own population or any neighboring states.
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- The Iraqi government on Thursday made public the text
of a the reply delivered to the U.S. mission by its ambassador to the United
Nations, Mohammed Aldouri.
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- ``Your message is stupid. Iraq is not afraid of you or
anyone else when it has a right to claim. What you warned about is not
on Iraq's agenda,'' Aldouri said.
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- ``Iraq is vital and powerful. It is not an opportunistic
country. Your administration has not learned from the past,'' Aldouri said.
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- The unusual encounter at the United Nations, revealed
to Reuters by senior U.S. and foreign diplomats, began with a visit to
Iraq's U.N. mission by Negroponte, who read from a prepared text.
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- On Monday, Aldouri went to the U.S. mission and read
his reply.
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- U.S. officials and diplomats said the United States was
concerned Iraq might move at home against rebellious Kurds, as it has several
times over the past two decades, or any of its neighbors. Baghdad attacked
Iran in 1980 and invaded Kuwait a decade later.
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- The United States has said there is no hard evidence
linking Iraq to the attacks against the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon in Washington.
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- But some in the administration of President Bush believe
the war on terrorism should also be aimed at Iraq to make sure it is not
developing weapons of mass destruction.
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- Baghdad has not condemned the suicide attacks on New
York and Washington. Aldouri told the U.N. General Assembly last week it
would be hypocritical for Iraq to do so.
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- Iraq, whom Washington regards as a ``sponsor of terrorism,''
has denied any link with the attacks or with the prime suspect, Saudi-born
Islamic militant Osama bin Laden.
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- A U.S.-led coalition forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait
in 1991. Since then, U.S. and British aircraft have been patrolling ``no-fly''
zones that cover large parts of Iraq.
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- Washington says the zones are necessary to protect their
Kurdish and Shi'ite populations from attack by the central government.
Baghdad says hundreds of civilians have died in Western air raids on targets
on the zones.
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- An Iraqi military spokesman said on Wednesday that Iraq's
upgraded air defenses had shot down a third American unmanned plane over
the southern fly zone. The U.S. military acknowledged the RQ-1B drone was
missing.
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