- (AFP) -- Russia challenged the US contention that Iraq
is a terrorist threat, saying nobody had produced any such evidence, while
Syria denied an Israeli claim that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were
stationed on its soil.
-
- Meanwhile it was business as usual for UN inspectors
on Christmas Day with five teams from the UN Monitoring, Verification and
Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), scouring Iraqi territory.
-
- Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov was quoted
by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying: "No-one can provide the slightest
evidence" that Iraq represented a terrorist threat,
-
- Russia opposes unilateral US military intervention against
Iraq, threatened by Washington if Baghdad should prove to be in material
breach of UN Security Council resolution 1441 ordering its complete renunciation
of weapons of mass destruction.
-
- Meanhwile Syria described as "ridiculous" and
"unfounded" accusations by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
that Iraq had transferred weapons of mass destruction to Syrian soil.
-
- Sharon told Israel's private Channel Two Tuesday he had
information Iraq had transferred chemical or biological weapons to Syria
in order to hide them.
-
- "Sharon's allegations are unfounded and aim to divert
attention from the chemical, nuclear and biological arsenal that Israel
possesses," a foreign ministry spokesman said in Damascus.
-
- "The accusations are ridiculous, especially since
Syria has signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and called along
with the other Arab countries for the Middle East to be freed from all
weapons of mass destruction," he was quoted by the official news agency
SANA as saying.
-
- "The only party that has opposed this call and continues
to do so is Israel," he said.
-
- Israel agreed with the United States in 1969 not to declare
its nuclear weapons programs nor to test the weapons.
-
- Washington in return pledged not to pressure Israel to
sign the the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
-
- Experts say Israel possesses at least 200 nuclear warheads
and the means to use them in an attack.
-
- Sharon said UN inspectors in Iraq were less likely to
find anything than they might have previously.
-
- "There is information we are verifying. But we are
certain that Iraq has recently moved chemical or biological weapons into
Syria," Sharon said.
-
- "Saddam Hussein wanted to hide his weapons, and
I think that the Americans know that," he said. Sharon strongly backs
US threats to topple the Iraqi leader's regime over its alleged weapons
off mass destruction programs.
-
- In Baghdad, President Saddam Hussein told his people
in a Christmas broadcast he was confident Iraq would be cleared by the
inspectors.
-
- The outcome of the UN operations "will be a big
shock to the United States and will expose all American lies, if things
remain on a technical and professional course with no hidden agendas.
-
- Saddam repeated the allegation that Washington was really
after Israel's oil.
-
- "It is in this context the American-Zionist campaign
against Iraq is being launched, while the tone of a threatened, large-scale
military aggression against our peace-loving people is growing louder,"
he said.
-
- The mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party, Ath-Thawra,
denied claims by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Baghdad's downing
of a US an unmanned US Predator spy drone violated Resolution 1441.
-
- "The destruction of this aircraft is the legitimate
right of Iraq within the framework of legitimate defense and of resistance
against violation of our airspace by American and British warplanes,"
it said.
-
- The Turkish parliament meanwhile decided Wednesday to
extend the mandate of a joint US-British force tasked with supervising
a no-fly zone in northern Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported.
-
- The decision came as NATO-member Turkey was debating
whether to back its key ally the United States in possible military strikes
against Iraq and the extent of its support.
-
- With Wednesday's parliamentary approval, the mandate
of the force, called Operation Northern Watch (ONW), has been extended
for six months, effective of December 31.
-
- Northern Watch is charged with enforcing a no-fly zone
north of the 36th parallel in order to protect the region's Kurdish population.
-
- Baghdad does not recognise the northern no-fly zone nor
a twin zone in the south of Iraq aimed at protecting the Shiite Muslim
population. Neither zone is authorised by any specific UN resolution.
-
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