Iraq: U.N. Plan Is Pretext for War
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In a point-by-point protest, the Iraqi government complained to the United Nations (news - web sites) Sunday that the small print behind the weapons inspections beginning this week will give Washington a pretext to attack.

The new U.N. resolution on the inspections could turn "inaccurate statements (among) thousands of pages" of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).

"There is premeditation to target Iraq, whatever the pretext," Sabri said.
Sabri's letter, dated Saturday and released Sunday, complained that a key passage on providing documentation is unjust, "because it considers the giving of inaccurate statements — taking into consideration that there are thousands of pages to be presented in those statements — is a material breach."

Sabri wrote that the aim was clear: "to provide pretexts ... to be used in aggressive acts against Iraq."

Iraq: U.N. Plan Is Pretext for War
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In a point-by-point protest, the Iraqi government complained to the United Nations (news - web sites) Sunday that the small print behind the weapons inspections beginning this week will give Washington a pretext to attack.

The new U.N. resolution on the inspections could turn "inaccurate statements (among) thousands of pages" of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).

"There is premeditation to target Iraq, whatever the pretext," Sabri said.
Sabri's letter, dated Saturday and released Sunday, complained that a key passage on providing documentation is unjust, "because it considers the giving of inaccurate statements — taking into consideration that there are thousands of pages to be presented in those statements — is a material breach."

Sabri wrote that the aim was clear: "to provide pretexts ... to be used in aggressive acts against Iraq."