Jack Straw: Weapons inspectors to defuse crisis

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw has declared that the best was to reduce the tension in the Gulf is for the UNMOVIC weapons inspection team to return to Iraq while claiming that any talk of a military strike on Iraq by the USA was “jumping the gun”.

He declared that the main aim of the British government was not to remove Saddam Hussein from power, although a change of regime in Baghdad would be welcome. His comments come after Baghdad invited the UNMOVIC team to Iraq but did not agree to the UN claim that this visit should be unconditional. Mr. Straw told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday, “If Saddam Hussein allows weapons inspectors back without condition, without restriction and when they are allowed to do their job properly, then circumstances will change”.

Speaking about the threat that Saddam Hussein poses to the region and beyond, Jack Straw declared that “The best way of trying to reduce that threat is by the introduction of weapons inspectors”.

Despite belligerent speeches by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, President George Bush has taken certain steps towards defusing the rising tension over a possible unilateral attack on Iraq by declaring that any action taken by the US Armed Forces will be after consultation with allied nations, although he has also claimed recently that the “regime change is in the interests of the world”.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru