BAGHDAD, Dec 22: Iraq is confident it can “resist” any US attack launched in a future phase of Washington’s war on terror, Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Saturday.

“The United States has ... committed many aggressions against many countries in different cases and without any justification,” he told reporters when asked about the possibility of a US strike on Iraq.

“If they want to attack Iraq again, that will be their own decision. But this (attack) will be rejected by the whole world because it (would be) unjustified, it (would be) illegitimate and there is no reason for (it).

“We are confident of our capability to resist any kind of aggression,” he added.

In an interview with the Washington Post on Friday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the military success of the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan did not assure a similar victory elsewhere, particularly Iraq.

Powell said the differences between the Taliban regime and that of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were vast, and warned that expanding the war to Iraq, as some hawks in Washington are advocating, would require a completely different strategy.

Iraq and Afghanistan are “two different countries with two different regimes, two different military capabilities,” he said.

Aziz, asked about France’s avowed opposition to a strike on Iraq as part of the US-led anti-terror campaign, said many countries did not share Washington’s enthusiasm for military action.

“There are many states who think in a rational and balanced way,” he said.

“Many countries, including France, do not share (the attitude of) American extremists who want to commit aggressions here and there, like a cowboy who shoots indiscriminately,” Aziz said.

He said Baghdad hoped to further boost its good relations with Paris despite their differences earlier this year over France’s support for a US-British plan to revamp 11-year-old UN sanctions on Iraq.—AFP