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Saturday,
March 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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China,
France oppose war against Iraq Blix: US claims baseless
US
official resigns in protest against war
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Khalid
predicts attacks on USA Pak Oppn
stalls House proceedings Arafat
nominates brother as PM Castro
gets sixth term as President
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China, France oppose war against Iraq
Beijing, March 7 Mr Jiang last night said currently the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1441 was proceeding “fairly well” and the weapons inspection mechanism should be strengthened, the state media reported today. “China stood for continuing to seek to resolve the Iraq issue by political means, and the door of peace should not be closed,” Mr Jiang was quoted as telling Mr Chirac over the telephone. “Every effort should be made for a political solution to the Iraq issue rather than choosing war,” Mr Jiang said a day after he talked to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on the Iraq issue. He said China supported the joint declaration issued on Wednesday by France, Germany and Russia, the contents of which basically accorded with China’s position. Mr Chirac, who is currently leading the anti-war/no second UN resolution campaign, said the Iraq issue had come to a “critical juncture” and its solution would affect the future of the world. France held the opinion that the UN Security Council should not adopt a resolution authorising the use of force and the international community should continue to make concerted efforts to avert war. In his conversation with Mr Jiang, Mr Schroeder had expressed anxiety about the dangerous situation in Iraq, saying Germany hoped the international community would make concerted efforts to seek a peaceful solution of the issue. He was of the opinion that the UN weapons inspectors should be given more time, while Iraq should totally eliminate its weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan has left here for New York to attend a crucial UN Security Council meeting on the Iraq issue today. Mr Tang will express China’s stance on Iraq and meet with his counterparts from relevant countries to exchange views.
PTI |
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Blix: US claims baseless
United Nations, March 7 He said the inspector found no evidence of underground chemical or biological weapons production or storage facilities in Iraq. “Several inspections have taken place in relation to mobile
production facilities,” he said. “No evidence of proscribed activities have so far been found,” he added. Blix told the Security Council today Iraq’s move to begin destroying its Al-Samoud 2 missiles constituted “a substantial measure of disarmament.”
Agencies |
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US official resigns in protest against war A senior member of the US Foreign Service has resigned in protest over the Bush administration’s approach and its policies over Iraq, saying that they are incompatible with American values and interests. The letter of the official, Mr John Brady Kiesling, addressed to Secretary of State Colin Powell, was put on the record of the US Senate on Wednesday by Senator Edward Kennedy, himself a staunch opponent of military action against Iraq. Mr Kennedy said he believed that the administration’s conduct of American foreign relations “has angered our friends and encouraged our enemies.” He added: “This chip-on-the shoulder, my-way-or-the-highway approach to diplomacy has alienated our allies at a time when we need unity to address modern threats.” The official, who had lately been serving in the US Embassy in Athens, said in his resignation letter: “Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defence since the days of Woodraw Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.” Almost daily on Capitol Hill, law makers have been voicing grave concerns about any unilateral action on the part of the USA against Iraq. Typical of their feelings were the comments of Congressman Jim McDermott: “How can we send 30,000 American people into war that kills Iraqis, left, right and centre with impunity? This is an unjust war.” |
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Iraqi mobile radar attacked Washington, March 7 The allies have more than doubled their patrols over the Iraqi no-fly zones to at least 500 a day, US defence officials said yesterday. US Central Command said in a statement from its headquarters in Florida that the aircraft used precision-guided weapons to strike an Iraqi mobile “target acquisition” radar system, 370 km west of Baghdad.
Reuters |
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Khalid predicts attacks on USA
Washington, March 7 “Only the American infidels will celebrate this”, Khalid reportedly told his Pakistani interrogators on his arrest in Pakistan last Saturday and went on to predict a spate of terrorist attacks on US forces massing in the Persian Gulf for a likely invasion of Iraq. The Washington Post quoting Pakistani intelligence officials reported today that Mohammed, considered no 3 in the al-Qaida network after Osama bin Laden and an Egyptian Aywan Zawahiri, defiantly told his captors that “let the Iraq war begin the US forces will be targeted inside their bases in the Gulf.” “I don’t have any specific information, but my sixth sense is telling me that you will get the news from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait,” Mohammed was quoted as saying by an official who was present at the interrogation. “Playing as American surrogate won’t help you or your country,” he told the Pakistani officials who described him as “unrepentant and almost cocky” during his initial interrogation. Mohammed, who is accused to be the brain behind the September 11 terror attacks on the USA, lectured his captors on their proper role as Muslims and said “there are dozens of people like me who will give their lives but won’t let the Americans live in peace anywhere in the world.” Mohammed, seemingly “relaxed”, spent several hours talking to Pakistani interrogators at a military facility in
Rawalpindi, the city where he was captured, before he was handed over to US officials and flown out of the country on Saturday night, officials said.
PTI |
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Pak Oppn stalls House proceedings
Islamabad, March 7 Speaker of National Assembly Ameer Hussain adjourned the House till Monday as pandemonium prevailed and Opposition lawmakers vociferously demanded that the constitutional amendments be withdrawn. This was the second time that the House was adjourned during the past two days. On Wednesday the Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis Amal and the Pakistan Peoples Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto paralysed the House after government circulated copies of the Constitution containing the amendments promulgated by Musharraf in form of Legal Framework Order, (LFO). Stormy scenes were witnessed in the 342-member House as Opposition members paralysed the proceedings saying they would not recognise the LFO unless it was ratified by Parliament.
PTI |
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Arafat nominates brother as PM
Jerusalem, March 7 “Mr Arafat “has nominated brother, Mr Abu Mazen, to take the post of Prime Minister,” the Palestinian Legislative Council speaker, Mr Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) was quoted as saying. The nomination came during a meeting of the PLO executive committee held yesterday in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Mr Qurei said the Palestinian Central Committee and the Palestinian Legislative Council would take the necessary steps to approve the nomination during a series of deliberations beginning on Sunday.
PTI |
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Castro gets sixth term as President
Havana, March 7 The National Assembly unanimously chose Mr Castro yesterday after re-electing the parliamentary leaders. Mr Castro, now in power for 44 years, holds the title of President of the Council of State, this communist-run island’s supreme governing body. The sole presidential candidate in yesterday’s vote, Mr Castro, wore a dark suit and tie rather than his typical olive green military uniform. The morning session opened with certification of the new parliament deputies by the President of the National Election Council, who read aloud the name of each of the 609 new National Assembly members. Deputies later re-elected Mr Ricardo Alarcon to his third five-year term as Speaker of Parliament. Alarcon, a former Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United Nations, is Mr Castro’s point man on Cuba-US relations. Mr Castro was elected by National Assembly deputies to his fifth presidential term five years ago, the same day the current parliament met for the first time after being chosen in general elections in 1998. Mr Castro has been Cuba’s unchallenged leader since 1959, though he was elected the President only in 1976.
AP |
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