French sources speak of US attack on Iraq

Well-informed French sources disclosed on Sunday that the French authorities asked The ruler of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaleifa al-Thani during his recent visit to Paris to carry a message to the Iraqi leaders saying that the "count down for a large military operation in Iraq has started."

These sources added in a statement to the London- based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily that if Iraqi will delay announcing its acceptance of the return back of UN weapons inspectors, it will be then difficult to stop the American machine.

These sources said that Baghdad is about to commit again the same mistake which took place in 1991 and which led then to the eruption of the Gulf war, stressing that "Baghdad's calculation regarding the ability of its friends to avoid a large scale military operation leading this time to the collapse of the standing regime, is also wrong, in remarks to Russia about which the sources said that Washington has succeeded in "buying its (Russia's) implicit consent on that."

The French sources said it has French intelligence information saying that Iraq has relaunched its program to produce mass destruction weapons.

Meantime, former director of the Iraqi intelligence Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Sammirai doubted what was stated by the American press concerning an American plan towards Iraq in order to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.

In a statement to the same paper al- Sammirai said that the plan does not sound logical because it requires preparing huge number of troops and also requires logistic preparations that need a long period of time lasting for several months.

He explained that if the "invasion operation" takes place, it will be costly and difficult due to reasons relating to the complications of the operation and the American lack of preparedness to accept heavy human losses.