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[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] Hello all, here are some articles that I hope haven't been posted yet to CASI. These 2 articles (interviews with Tariq Aziz) show that the Iraqi won't let themselves slaughter like sheep. They will resist. And I think we should give the people of iraq our full support on their resistance against this thread of a new US-UK-aggression. Greetings. Dirk Adriaensens Subject: Iraq: "Every village in Iraq will turn into a jungle in Vietnam" for US - Xinhua Iraqi Foreign Minister Defies U.S. Threat ============================ Xinhuanet 2002-03-04 21:34:38 PARIS, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq will not give in to threats from the United States to topple the government of President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarek Aziz said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro published Monday. "Facing up to the Americans, every village in Iraq will turn into a jungle in Vietnam," said Aziz, "It is not the jungle that allowed the Vietnamese to win, but the determination." Aziz, who has been the Iraqi foreign minister and vice prime minister since 1981, ruled out the possibility of an eventual scenario in Iraq similar to that in Afghanistan where the United States backed an opposition alliance to help overthrow the Taliban regime. "It would be an excellent scenario for a Hollywood movie. But the reality is very different," he said. "Firstly, Iraq is a real state that existed long before Saddam Hussein (came to power), unlike Afghanistan where the power has never belonged to the capital, but to chiefs of tribes. Secondly, there is neither northern alliance nor southern alliance in Iraq,"he said. On U.S. demand to bring President Hussein before an international tribunal, Aziz said: "The tribunal in The Hague is illegal. It is by the conqueror, it is not equitable." On the concept of the "axis of evil" U.S. President George W. Bush used to describe Iraq, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Aziz said: "This bizarre slogan shows how ignorant Bush is." "The axis, in the context of World War II, conformed to the reality. Germany, Italy and Japan were effectively allied and their political systems were similar. But there is no resemblance among the three nations that Bush targets at," he said. On Ossama bin Laden, the accused mastermind of the September 11terrorist attacks against the United States, the Iraqi foreign minister rejected any relation between his country and the alleged terrorist chief and refused to make any judgment. "I can not speak about a man that I do not know. I even do not know whether it is him who organized the September 11 attacks," said Aziz. He also dismissed the "smart sanctions" drafted by London and Washington as a "trap." "With their 'smart sanctions,' the Americans want to transform Iraq into a breeding area of chicken where we feed the Iraqis and that is all. But our people need not only what to eat. We need hospitals, sewage networks, electricity power plants..." Iraq has agreed to resume talks with the United Nations and the first meeting will be held on March 7. Aziz declined to give any details about the coming talks, but he insisted that Iraq should have the right to impose conditions for the talks. "The U.N. Security Council should also see to Iraqi demands. First example, the lift of sanctions. For 11 years we have been under the sanctions, and despite our scrupulous respect to the text of U.N. resolutions, we are always denied any hope of normalization," he said. "Second example, the 14th paragraph of Resolution 687. It forecasts the elimination (of weapons of mass destruction) in the whole Middle East region and not in Iraq only. Clearly, the stock of Israel should also be eliminated," he added. Enditem USA to get "second Vietnam" if they attack Iraq-Aziz. The United States "will get a second Vietnam" if it dares attack Iraq. It was learned here on Monday that this warning was voiced by Iraq Vice-Premier Tareq Aziz. He said that the Iraqis would fight to the last ditch and that the U.S. aggression would not yield the desired results to the White House administration. "The Iraq leadership has excellent relations with its people," Aziz noted. "If this was not so, we wouldn't have been able to endure two wars and eleven years of draconic sanctions," he added. Source: ITAR-TASS WORLD SERVICE _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk