IRAQ: Iraq poured scorn on the US yesterday, saying it was using last year's attacks - hailed as the "punishment of God" by one Baghdad magazine - as a pretext to try to crush its old Middle East foe.
The government newspaper al-Jumhouriya said President Bush's "arrogant and imperialist" administration wanted to rule the world by force.
"A year after the September 11th events, the American administration has failed to review its policy of aggression and blackmail," it said in a front-page editorial.
"Between the two Septembers, the American evil administration is pointing at Iraq as a very dangerous enemy which threatens world peace, in order to launch a new war under false excuses," wrote the official al-Iraq newspaper.
The al-Iqtasadi (Economist) magazine hailed the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon as the "punishment of God".
But while one voice of the regime was pouring scorn on the US, another was seeming to sympathise with it. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister sent a letter of condolence to former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, the official Iraqi News Agency.
Mr Clark, a vocal opponent of US policy on Iraq and UN sanctions, visited Iraq late last month.
"On the elapse of one year after the tragic events of September 11, I express to you, and through you to the families of the victims my deep condolences," Tareq Aziz said in the letter.
"Our sympathy with you in this event rises from our feeling here in Iraq of the tragedies which have hit our people over 12 years of continued sanctions and aggression," he added. "The victims of Sept 11 events in America reached up to 3,000 people... whereas Iraq's victims because of the sanctions and the aggression mounted to more than 1.5 million people...and the number is on the rise."
President Bush will take his case against Saddam Hussein to the United Nations which he addresses today.
Iraq's Oil Minister, Mr Amir Muhammed Rasheed, said Washington was manipulating events to harm Iraq's economy by enforcing new procedures that cut oil exports under the UN-monitored oil-for-food deal. He was referring to retroactive oil pricing, under which prices are set well after the time of exports.
Iraq has denied any link with the September 11th attacks.
- (Reuters)