November 27, 2001	Tuesday	Ramazan 11, 1422

WASHINGTON, Nov 26: US President George W. Bush on Monday warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein he must allow the return of UN arms inspectors to see if Baghdad is developing chemical, biological or nuclear arms.

Asked what consequences Saddam Hussein would face if he refuses, the US leader curtly replied: “He’ll find out.”

Amid speculation that Iraq could soon find itself in the cross-chairs of the US-led war on terrorism, Bush went beyond his usual warning that nations aiding terrorists will share their fate to include those developing “weapons of mass destruction that will be used to terrorize nations.”

“They will be held accountable,” pledged Bush, who launched a global campaign to stamp out terrorism after September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“And as for Mr Saddam Hussein, he needs to let inspectors back in his country to show us that he is not developing weapons of mass destruction,” the president told reporters in the White House Rose Garden.

Baghdad has ruled out the return of the weapons experts, who were pulled out of Iraq shortly before the United States and Britain launched a bombing blitz on the country in December 1998.

There have been no UN arms inspectors in Iraq since December 1998, when the former commission, known as UNSCOM, pulled out on the eve of a bombing campaign by the United States and Britain.

UNMOVIC was set up a year later by Security Council Resolution 1284, which for the first time offered Iraq the possibility of having UN sanctions suspended, by cooperating fully with the new arms inspectors.

The sanctions were imposed in Aug 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait and can be removed only when the council is satisfied that Iraq has destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction.

RUSSIA: Moscow is seeking to strengthen its relations with Iraq, a country still subject to strict international sanctions, a Russian official said on Monday.

Russia wants to “develop and deepen” its economic and political ties with Iraq which “holds an important position in the Middle East,” deputy foreign minister Alexander Saltanov said at a round table on Russian- Iraqi economic cooperation.

Iraq is a strategic trading partner for Russia despite its classification by the United States as a sponsor of state terrorism and the UN sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Participants in Monday’s round table — attended by Russian businessmen and lawmakers and a number of Iraqi government officials and parliamentarians — called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “take all necessary steps” to block proposed UN smart sanctions on Iraq.

Smart sanctions, which are backed by Washington, would scrap the embargo on civilian trade with Baghdad while tightening controls to prevent oil-smuggling out of Iraq and illegal arms imports into the country.

However, Saltanov said on Monday that it was becoming “increasingly difficult for Russia to fight alone” against a tightening of sanctions against Baghdad

He added that Iraq’s situation was worsening, since it was now in danger of becoming a “military target” for the United States in its fight against international terrorism.

The Iraqi ambassador in Moscow, Mujir al-Duri, said Baghdad was “counting a lot on Russia’s support.”

Ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, also a deputy speaker of the Duma or lower house of parliament, said he was convinced Russia, which holds a seat on the UN Security Council and has a right of veto, could block the proposed smart sanctions.

Russia has purchased a quarter of the oil exported by Iraq over the past six months and Russian companies have exported 1.85 billion dollar worth of goods to Iraq over the past ten months, up from 1.25 billion dollars for the whole of last year, Saltanov said.

The United Nations is to debate early next month an extension of the “oil for food” programme, which allows Iraq to export a limited quantity of oil to purchase food for its population. —AFP