PARIS: Pentagon superhawk Richard Perle, one of the principal architects of the American war against Iraq, has told the French that they shouldn’t count on reaping any of the benefits of the forthcoming Anglo-American victory over Saddam Hussein.

“You should have thought twice about refusing to come over to our side,” Mr Perle said. “If you didn’t think of joining the club, then don’t count on coming to the banquet.”

In an interview with a French TV network, Mr Perle announced that “we will ourselves be responsible for imposing a security environment in Iraq, for the United Nations can’t be counted on to do that. Already in the Balkans we saw tens of thousands of deaths when they were under United Nations’ protection.”