Hussein Says Bush Wants to Control Mideast Oil

[Scott Pollard <wspollard@mail.utexas.edu>]

This is from the NY Times, word from Saddam Hussein on what he sees as the 
real motives for a U.S. attack on Iraq.  I think this article goes well 
with what we have discussed in class on Mideast issues as well as the 
article from Korea, I believe, that Ji-Hyang shared with the 
class.  Something to think about?  I think so.

Scott Pollard


September 20, 2002
Hussein Says Bush Wants to Control Mideast Oil
By JULIA PRESTON



UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 19 — President Saddam Hussein of Iraq accused the 
Bush administration today of seeking to "destroy Iraq in order to control 
the Middle East oil" and asserted that Mr. Bush had made "distortions" to 
lead Americans to think Iraq had a role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Mr. Hussein's comments came in a letter to the General Assembly, excerpts 
of which were read there today by his foreign minister, Naji Sabri. The 
Iraqi leader assailed the administration as broadly as Mr. Bush criticized 
Iraq in the same hall on Sept. 12. Mr. Hussein accused Washington of 
"making up problems" with Baghdad to promote the interests of Israel, which 
he called "the Zionist entity."
Mr. Hussein declared that Iraq is "clear of all nuclear, chemical and 
biological weapons." But he made no pledges to cooperate with United 
Nations arms inspectors who are preparing to return to Iraq after a nearly 
four-year hiatus. Expressing skepticism about their impartiality, the Iraqi 
leader said only, "along with you, we are waiting to see."
That wait should take about a month. Hans Blix, the Swedish arms expert who 
heads the United Nations chemical and biological weapons teams based in New 
York, said in a press briefing this afternoon that he expected an advance 
team of inspectors to arrive in Iraq on Oct. 15.
Mr. Hussein's comments, his most extensive to date on the sharpening 
confrontation with Washington, offered no assurances to the United Nations 
weapons teams. Instead, Mr. Hussein made a general offer to "any scientific 
experts accompanied by politicians you choose to represent any one of your 
countries" to come to Iraq to look for weapons. He said Iraq would provide 
those foreign experts "all the facilities they need to achieve their 
objective."
Mr. Hussein's fierce tone echoed Mr. Bush's, but his sharp language 
contrasted with the smoother diplomatic language that most other leaders 
have adopted in eight days of General Assembly speechmaking that ended 
today. He never spoke of Israel by name, for example, referring only to 
"Zionism."
Mr. Blix briefed the Security Council in a closed meeting about his plans 
to renew inspections in Iraq, which were suspended in December 1998 when 
the inspectors were withdrawn in advance of an American and British bombing 
attack on Baghdad. Afterward, Mr. Hussein refused to allow them to return.
Speaking after the Security Council meeting, Mr. Blix said he had told the 
Council that Iraqi officials had "not yet been ready" to work out 
logistical details at a meeting he held with them at the United Nations on 
Tuesday. Mr. Blix reported that the Iraqi officials said they would 
complete those practical discussions in talks in Vienna from Sept. 30 to 
Oct. 2.
According to a time line he presented to the Council, Mr. Blix said the 
advance team's provisional starting date in Iraq was Oct. 15. The full 
inspection team, including nuclear experts from the International Atomic 
Energy Agency, would start work about two months later. But the inspections 
would not become "fully operational" until at least 60 days after that, Mr. 
Blix said.
Then it will take at least four months of inspections before Mr. Blix will 
report back to the Security Council on Iraq's progress in disarmament — if 
Baghdad cooperates fully with the work.
However, Mr. Blix, who has been under pressure from the United States and 
other Council nations to accelerate the inspections, said he expected to 
conduct a few test inspections in the first two months after his team 
arrived, to judge Iraq's disposition toward the United Nations teams. He 
said Iraq could have "no sanctuaries" in its territory from the inspectors.
In the Council meeting, the United States ambassador, John D. Negroponte, 
said that Iraqi officials seemed to be stalling the start of the 
inspections. He said the United States would press the Council for a 
resolution specifying tough consequences if Iraq failed to disarm itself of 
prohibited weapons.
In his letter read before the Council, Mr. Hussein said the Bush 
administration was planning an attack against Iraq in order to "control the 
politics as well as the oil and economic policies of the whole world."
"If it succeeded in that, God forbid," the Iraqi leader said, "it would 
dictate on you what each country needs for its economic development" by 
controlling the price and distribution of oil. The Bush administration, he 
charged, was "acting on behalf of Zionism, which has been killing the 
heroic people of Palestine, destroying their property, murdering their 
children and seeking to impose their domination on the whole world."
He said the United Nations sanctions program that monitors Iraqi oil sales 
— imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 — was "tantamount to 
looting" and called on the Security Council to lift the sanctions.
Some United Nations officials and many Council diplomats were taken aback 
by Mr. Hussein's comments. In meetings here over the past days, Mr. Sabri 
was more conciliatory, leading Council members as well as Arab leaders to 
believe that Iraq might now have a more open attitude toward the arms 
inspections.