There's no proof on Iraq: Moscow
>From AFP
December 27, 2002
RUSSIA has widened the rift on the UN Security Council over Iraq by openly disputing Washington's claim it has proof Baghdad is hiding weapons of mass destruction.
"No one can provide the slightest evidence," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov told the ITAR-TASS news agency, dismissing claims that Iraq represented a terrorist threat.
The US and its closest ally, Britain, claim they have proof of Iraqi attempts to foil weapons inspections, a claim Baghdad strongly denies.
Russia, the US and Britain, along with France and China, are the five permanent security council members, each with veto power over actions and resolutions by the 15-member council.
The US has threatened unilateral military action against Iraq if it believes Baghdad is in "material breach" of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 mandating its abolition of weapons of mass destruction.
Washington and London have already said a material breach exists, based on Iraq's 12,000-page account of its weapons program mandated and received by the Security Council.
Syria, the only Arab member of the Security Council, dismissed as "ridiculous and unfounded" accusations by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Iraq had transferred weapons of mass destruction to Syria.
Mr Sharon claimed on Tuesday that UN inspectors in Iraq would be unlikely to find any weapons because they were being hidden in Syria.
"Sharon's allegations are unfounded and only aim to divert attention from the chemical, nuclear and biological arsenal that Israel possesses," a foreign ministry spokesman said in Damascus.
"The accusations are ridiculous, especially since Syria has signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and along with other Arab countries has called for the Middle East to be freed from all weapons of mass destruction," the Syrian spokesman told the official SANA news agency.
"The only party that has opposed this call and continues to do so is Israel."
Israel agreed with the US in 1969 not to declare its nuclear weapons programs nor to test its nuclear weapons.
In return, Washington pledged not to pressure Israel to sign the nuclear non- proliferation treaty.
However, military experts say Israel has at least 200 nuclear warheads and possesses the means to use them in an attack.
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