Gorbachev: Attack on Iraq Illegal

Mikhail Gorbachev declared in an interview published by the Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung that George Bush’s constant fuelling of the flames against the Iraqi regime is to take the attention of Americans away from the domestic situation, while maintaining that a military strike against Iraq would violate international law.

He described this situation inside the USA as “very complicated at present” and declared that the turning of attention abroad “is an old trick”. It will be remembered that members of the Bush Administration had been named in corporate scandals earlier this year and that the heat on Iraq began to be turned up at the same time.

He added that “Washington does not allow its allies in NATO and the other members of the Security Council make their own choices and this is no way to treat your friends”. He declared that the USA has failed to present a single credible piece of evidence linking the Ba’ath regime to a WMD programme and that in any case, it is the job of the UNMOVIC inspection team to check whether there is or not such a programme in Iraq.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru