Iraq welcomes UN chief's statements at GCC summit

Iraq has welcomed the statements of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the 19th GCC summit on UN resolution 687, which states the need to clear the Middle East from weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraqi daily Babel issued on Tuesday considered Annan's statements as a positive step in the right track, following a period of silence by the United Nations and the Security Council concerning Israeli weapons, which it said threaten peace and security in the region. The paper added this step should be followed by other steps and new measures away from the US "blackmailing and its double standard policy."

UN Security Council resolution 687, released in April 1991, called in its 14 articles for dismantling Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as a start to dismantling all weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, in remarks to Israeli biological, chemical, nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

Criticism is often layed at the US for persistence in wanting to destroy any Iraqi banned weapons (or potential development of such weapons) while not being as vigilant against Israel to prevent its weapons of banned mass-destruction. To the contrary, the US is seen as actively assisting Israel with its most advanced technologies of banned weapons.

Iraq has repeatedly stressed that the US worked and is still working to prolong the period of inspection and embargo on Iraq in order to preoccupy world public opinion with Iraq and its crisis whereas it exploits time to supply Israel with more banned weapons, the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported.