IRAQ/US: Iraq has rejected as outrageous and unconvincing the US report that it was hiding banned weapons, saying it would send a letter to the UN Security Council rebutting the allegations point by point.
"We will send a detailed letter to the Security Council to be the official Iraqi response to all allegations to rebut US [Secretary of State Mr Colin] Powell's speech point by point," the Iraqi presidential adviser Mr Amer al-Saadi told a news conference.
On Wednesday, Mr Powell displayed to the UN Security Council satellite imaging and intelligence intercepts to demonstrate that the Iraqi military had allegedly conspired to conceal banned weapons in defiance of UN disarmament efforts.
"Regarding the [audio tapes] I will not grace them with any more comments. They were below the level of a superpower. One can . . . fabricate anything in this regard and they are no evidence at all," Mr al-Saadi added.
He said the allegations were "outrageous and not convincing".
"Without any convincing evidence the allegations were more outrageous," he added.
"We have military secrets connected with our right to self-defence, nothing more," Mr al-Saadi said.
He said "the purpose of the show that went on at the Security Council was mainly for home consumption for the uninformed".
Iraq also denied yesterday any links to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, identified by Mr Powell as a key member of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network. "We have no links whatsoever with Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi," Iraq's former UN ambassador, Mr Said al-Mussawi, told a Baghdad press conference. He added that Mr Zarqawi was currently in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is not currently under Baghdad's control.
Mr Powell, in his report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, had sought to tie Iraq to international terrorism, claiming that Baghdad currently had firm links with Mr Zarqawi, a man he characterised as a "deadly terrorist."
"We have information that Zarqawi is now in the Sulamaniya in the Gayra region of northern Iraq, which is not under central government control," Mr Mussawi said at yesterday's press conference called to challenge Mr Powell's accusations. - (Reuters, AFP)