Anti-terrorism War To Go Beyond Afghanistan

The war against terrorism cannot and will not be over in Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying in an interview with the British Financial Times newspaper. The interview was held on the eve of Putin's visit to Great Britain scheduled for December 21-22. First of all, the Russian President stressed, "we should consider the ways to block the financing of terrorism." At the moment, Russia "has no confirmation that Iraq funds terrorists. According to our data, they get funds from other countries. And we know them," the Russian President emphasised. International community has always been and is now concerned with the possibility of mass destruction weapons being produced on the territory of Iraq. And this issue should be resolved. "We propose to convince Iraq to allow United Nations observers and controllers to sites and facilities which are in this respect interesting for international community, in exchange for lifting of sanctions," Putin stated. As for possible use of force, we should look at the productivity of what has been done in this regard so far, the President continued. The bombing has been there but the results, the effectiveness is still remaining as unclear. "In this connection, I think that we should join our efforts within the UN," Putin said. "At the same time, I have to honestly admit that Iraq itself is not satisfied with our proposal. We haven't had any positive reaction from Baghdad yet." That is why, the President concluded, we will continue the joint work and consultations with our partners in Europe, the United States, Great Britain and, of course, within the United Nations.