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TITLE: Russian Army Criticizes New U.S. Air Raids on Iraq |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: Reuters |
DATE: February 22, 2001 |
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The head of foreign relations for Russia's army lashed out at the United States Thursday for launching new air raids on Iraq, saying no state could feel safe from President Bush, Interfax news agency reported. The U.S. military said earlier Thursday that its warplanes had struck Iraqi air defenses in a northern "no fly" zone, the first such strikes since U.S. and British jets attacked radar and communications sites near Baghdad last week. "This is a barbarous, anti-humane act toward the populations of other countries. Naturally, there was no military reason for carrying out the strikes," said Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, who is in charge of foreign ties at Russia's Defense Ministry and known in Russia as a hawk. Interfax quoted Ivashov as saying the new Bush administration had "thrown down the gauntlet to the international community." "If the United Nations closes its eyes to these bombings, this could lead to an escalation of such activities toward other countries on the part of the Bush team," he said. "If Washington behaves this way in the future, and it is demonstrating clearly that it will, then no state on earth can feel secure." A wave of U.S.-British air raids on Iraq last week ignited a chorus of anti-American comment in Russian media and drew harsh words from across the Russian political spectrum. President Vladimir Putin called the raids unhelpful. Earlier, Russia welcomed U.N. talks starting next week on decade-old sanctions against Baghdad as parliament urged Putin to insist on lifting them altogether. Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Vasili Sredin as saying Russia was ready to contribute to the success of a high-level U.N. session in New York scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. "We are actively fighting for a fair political solution of the Iraqi problem on the basis of existing resolutions by the U.N. Security Council," Sredin said. That was a reference to resolution 1284, which calls for an easing of the sanctions imposed against Iraq after the Gulf War, provided Baghdad allows U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq and cooperates with them. Russia has called for sanctions to be relaxed, saying they mainly harmed Iraq's civilian population. That opinion is shared by several major European nations, but has so far been opposed by the United States and Britain. After last week's bombing, London and Washington agreed to rethink their policy toward Iraq, aiming to replace full sanctions with "smart embargoes" focused on arms control. Iraq's government press has criticized the idea, describing it as a pretext for Britain and the United States to maintain their stranglehold on the country. © 2001 Reuters Limited. END |