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Iraq Won't Judge US Use of Phosphorus, Minister Tells Russian Agency

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 November 2005, 18:00 CST

Text of report by Russian news agency Interfax-AVN website

Moscow, 23 November: The Iraqi government cannot judge the appropriateness of the use of white phosphorus by American troops, Interfax has been told by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

"The point is that the American troops have their own grounds for this, their own interpretation of the matter. The Iraqis have nothing to do with it - they have no right to judge the Americans' use of any particular weapon," Zebari told the news agency on Wednesday [23 November].

He said that, from the beginning, "all rules" were violated by the "large terrorist networks" acting against the Iraqi and American military.

"Sodalist terrorist groupings were active against the civilian population; their actions targeted mosques and hospitals. They used all means to kill the civilian population: so they broke all the rules themselves," the minister noted.

At the same time, he stressed that "rumours that the Americans allegedly used chemical weapons that must not be used are questionable".

The minister noted that white phosphorus "was used earlier and not just in Iraq" and "was used before then by other troops".

Earlier this month the Pentagon admitted that American servicemen used white phosphorus in battles for the town of Al-Fallujah in November of last year.

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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