Iraq is adamant in face of the United States threat, saying that it is not scared by the threat of military strikes as part of Washington's ongoing war against terrorism.
"Iraq will not be terrified by such threats," Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said after attending Saturday's ceremony to commemorate Iraqi soldiers killed during the 1980-88 war with Iran.
Aziz expressed confidence that the "deep-rooted" Iraqi leadership would stay on "despite all threats from the outside."
Echoing Aziz's remarks, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan reiterated Iraq's rejection of the United Nations arms inspections, in suspension since December 1998 when the US and Britain launched a four-day airstrikes against Iraq for its alleged failure to cooperate with UN arms inspectors.
"Iraq will not allow UN inspectors back before the lifting of the 11-year-old sanctions," said Ramadan, who was also among the senior Iraqi officials present at the ceremony.
Ramadan and Aziz are the leading Iraqi officials to rebuff the latest threats from US President George W. Bush, who has maintained a tough policy toward Iraq since taking office in January.
In his latest warning, Bush hinted on November 26 that Iraq might become the next US target after Afghanistan by demanding Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow UN arms inspectors back into Iraq after an absence of three years.
"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," Bush said.
When asked about the consequences if Iraq rejects, Bush replied: "He (Saddam) will find out."
The strong rhetoric was immediately responded by Mohammad al-Duri, Iraq's ambassador to the UN, who said that his government will not allow UN weapons inspectors to return as long as the sanctions remain intact.
"Our position is very clear on that question: We will not permit any weapons inspectors. We have nothing to inspect," al-Duri said.
The UN Security Council imposed sweeping economic sanctions on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The sanctions will not be lifted until UN arms inspector certify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.
An Iraqi official spokesman has also reiterated his government's intransigence by terming Bush's demand as "arrogant."
"Anyone who thinks Iraq can accept an arrogant and unilateral will is wrong," the spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).
"Iraq is able to defend itself and will not bow to any threats," the spokesman said, adding that the return of UN arms inspectors hinged on the total lifting of the UN sanctions and the abolishing of the two no-fly zones.
US and British warplanes have been patrolling the two air exclusion zones, set up after the 1991 Gulf War, to keep Saddam at bay by claiming to protect the Kurds and the Shiite Muslims in northern and southern Iraq from the persecution of the Iraqi government.
"We categorically reject any haughty, arrogant and stupid language from the US," Ath-Thawra, organ of Iraq's ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, said in an editorial on November 28.
Accusing the US of making "baseless" allegations, the editorial said: "It is not Iraq's trait to yield to threats, no matter where they come from."
The editorial stressed that Iraq has dismantled its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and vowed no re-entry of the UN arms inspectors, a point elaborated by Ramadan the same day.
In a lenthy interview with the Qatari al-Jazeera television on November 28, Ramadan said that Iraq rejects the resumption of UN arms inspections and is ready to face any fresh US military strikes.
According to Ramadan, UN arms inspectors once acknowledged that as much as 95 percent of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed, and it was the US, not the UN Security Council, that unilaterally withdrew the UN arms inspectors out of Iraq ahead of the US-British air strikes in 1998.
"What is the reason behind the US push for the return of the so-called arms inspectors now? They are only for collecting data and spying," Ramadan said.
"Bush's threat to Iraq has nothing new," he said, adding that the US launched continued attacks on Iraq during the past 11 years.
In addition to frequent air raids in the two no-fly zones since the Gulf War, the US-led Western coalition launched large-scale military attacks against Iraq in 1993, 1996, 1998 and last February.
Ramadan said that Iraq was ready to confront any new US military strikes as it was doing in the past years.
Observers have pointed out that any new US attacks on Iraq will surely arouse an international uproar and widespread condemnations as the oil-rich country has greatly improved relations with countries around the world, especially the Arab world.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on November 28 that a military operation against Baghdad "would mean the end of the understanding on how to fight against terrorism," while Syria was more blunt by declaring that the US would be making "a fatal mistake" if it were to strike Iraq.
Jordan, a US ally in the Mideast region, has also appealed Washington not to attack Iraq, warning that such a strike would have "dangerous consequences."
Even the Western allies of the US, such as Britain and Germany, have also insisted that the war on terrorism not go beyond Afghanistan.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said on November 28 that he has seen no proof to justify an attack on Iraq.
"I have not seen any evidence to link Iraq directly with al-Qaeda," Hoon said.
The US has held the al-Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington.
Observers believe that if the US, in defiance of the world opposition, attacks Iraq, it will have to face consequences including possible collapse of the international anti-terrorism coalition, further estrangement from its Western and Arab allies and increased isolation on the Iraq issue.
(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2001)
