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February 1, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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War on Iraq ‘likely’ after Feb 20 UN arms experts search Iraq sites Kasuri wants India, Pak in N-club Mine blast kills 18 near Kandahar Beijing, January 31 North Korea today insisted that a binding non-aggression treaty was the only way to resolve the ongoing nuclear crisis, and said it had no interest in holding multilateral talks on the issue |
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War on Iraq ‘likely’ after Feb 20 Moscow, January 31 “The US administration will take a formal decision to hold a military operation in Iraq right after the US Armed Forces and their allies have formed battle groups in the region. This will take another two or three weeks”, a high-ranking source in the Russian Armed Forces General Staff told Interfax yesterday. Thus a possible war on Iraq could begin after February 20, the source said. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed grave apprehension over mounting tension in Iraq and urged the international community to intensify efforts to find a political solution to the crisis. “These past few months and days have unfortunately given us reasons to worry, related to the increasing tension over Iraq, North Korea and West Asia,” Mr Putin said yesterday welcoming a group of new ambassadors at Kremlin. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, during a visit to the Bulgarian capital Sofia, said yesterday that all statements related to Baghdad’s connection with the Al-Qaida had so far “not been substantiated by exact facts”, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. MADRID: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday headed for talks with US President George W. Bush that could play a crucial role in the timing of any military strike against Iraq. During a stopover in Madrid on his way to the USA, Mr Blair said it was inevitable that Saddam Hussein would be disarmed, either peacefully or by force, and he made it clear he still put faith in the United Nations to achieve this. But a letter signed by the Blair and seven other European leaders backing the tough US stance on the Iraq crisis only served to underline divisions within the continent over how to approach Saddam. European Union heavyweights France and Germany, critics of the US position on Iraq, were not among the signatories and EU president Greece criticised the letter, saying that it did not contribute to a common approach on Iraq.
UNI, Reuters |
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UN arms experts search Iraq sites
Baghdad, January 31 Iraqi officials said inspection teams from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drove to at least three sites near Baghdad on the Muslim day of rest. An UNMOVIC missile team visited 7 Nissan Company in Nahrawan, 30 km east of Baghdad. The facility develops fuses for some Iraqi missile programmes. A chemical team visited an agricultural equipment company in Waziriya in Baghdad, while a multi-disciplinary team visited
al-Yarmouk State Company. A biological team prepared to fly by helicopter to an undisclosed site. President Saddam Hussein’s adviser, Mr Amir al-Saadi, yesterday invited UNMOVIC chief Hans Blix and IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei to visit Baghdad before the two report to the 15-nation council again on February 14. Mr ElBaradei today said they were willing to consider the Iraqi invitation if the government conceded on some sticking points. Iraq would have to show willingness to allow surveillance flights by U2 spy planes as well as interviews with Iraqi scientists without Iraqi minders, he said. “We need to make sure before we go that they are ready to move forward on these issues,” Mr ElBaradei told reporters at Vienna airport after arriving from New York. “We are exploring it (the Iraqi invitation)...It is very important before we go that (it is arranged that) we meet the highest level of leadership,” he said. LONDON:
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has said that Baghdad has not improved its cooperation with the UN since Monday, when he delivered a key report on weapons inspections in Iraq to the Security Council. In an interview with British television station Channel Four on Thursday, Mr Blix said he had not yet been given signs that the inspectors would have access to Iraqi scientists whom they wish to interview in private. In Baghdad, a spokesman for the inspectors said that two more scientists had refused to be interviewed
in private, bringing to 15 the total number of scientists who have declined to talk to the UN since inspections resumed more than two months ago. Mr Blix said he wanted
more time to continue inspections, though the duration depended on how much the Iraqi government
liaised
with the UN. Reuters, AFP |
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Kasuri wants India, Pak in N-club
Washington, January 31 “Frankly, as far as the NPT is concerned, there are five countries in it. India and Pakistan have demonstrated their nuclear capacity. We are willing to be let in if you would let us in, and we would conform to all requirements. “Israel has not demonstrated its capacity but probably it is more advanced. Generally it is more advanced technologically than both India and Pakistan. In this field also, (it must be so). Somehow, if these three countries can be acknowledged as nuclear powers, there will be eight countries — five plus three,” Mr Kasuri, said at the American Enterprise Institute, a leading think-tank. The visiting minister said the eight members of the club could then implement the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. “We wouldn’t want ten new members in the club.” Meanwhile bilateral and regional issues, including Indo-Pak relations, figured in talks Mr Kasuri held with US Vice-President Dick Cheney. In another development US President George W Bush engineered an informal encounter with Mr Kasuri, and renewed US praise for Islamabad’s support in the US anti-terror campaign. Mr Bush dropped by on a meeting between Mr Kasuri and his national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice at the White House on Thursday, rounding off a visit to Washington in which the minister met every senior US official. “The President of the United States of America Mr George W Bush, was kind enough to also join us in the meeting for some time,” said Kasuri, proud of an encounter which will be seen in South Asia as symbolic proof of the US commitment to Pakistan.
PTI, AFP |
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Mine blast kills 18 near Kandahar Kabul, January 31 It still remains unclear whether the explosion was due to an attack by Taliban sympathisers, who have their stronghold in Kandahar, or an old mine leftover from the war against the Soviet Union or the civil war. Paschtun said strong rain had washed the road 10 km south of Kandahar and the bus, trying to avoid traffic, had driven over the mine.
DPA |
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N. Korea for no-war pact with USA
Beijing, January 31 “The only way to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula is the conclusion of a non-aggression treaty which will have binding force after going through (the US) Congress,” Pyongyang’s Ambassador in Beijing Choe Jin-Su said at a press conference. “We are not only opposed to any attempt to internationalise the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula but also we will never participate in any form of multilateral talks.” Choe called the Bush Administration as an “untrustworthy, rogue group.” Washington has rejected Pyongyang’s demands, insisting the North must first dismantle its nuclear threat. Washington and its allies are insisting that Pyongyang reverse its decision this month to pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
AFP |
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The USA may have worked out a timetable for a war on Iraq, with February 20 as a possible date to trigger outright hostilities, according to Russia’s Armed Forces General Staff.
