Iraqi minister attacks US administration, refuses to apologize

Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mahdi Saleh stated that Iraq refuses the US protest at the Security Council and the US request that Iraq apologize for describing Assistant US Secretary of State Martin Indyk as a Jew and a Zionist.

Saleh said the US protest is nonsense, defending what Iraq's foreign minister said as "true and that (Indyk) serves the Zionist schemes against the Arab nations, and against its supremacy and its regional integrity."

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf described Indyk in a message he directed to the Security Council on June 19 as a Zionist. Washington presented an official protest against the racial insults launched by the Iraqi foreign minister against the US official.

Mahadi Saleh denied the existence of any current confidential discussions with the U.S., and he said, "It is untrue because this country is acting with a severe arrogance."