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Call to let inspectors finish their job

ABU DHABI - Shaikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, has stressed the need to give UN inspectors an opportunity to carry on their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

ABU DHABI - Shaikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, has stressed the need to give UN inspectors an opportunity to carry on their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Shaikh Sultan made the statement during a meeting here yesterday with former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter who is on a visit to the UAE to deliver a lecture - The Looming War - at the Abu Dhabi-based Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up (ZCCF). Shaikh Sultan said he hoped that a war would be averted because "the region cannot tolerate another war which may result in a catastrophe of unpredictable magnitude".

Praising Mr Ritter's stance, Shaikh Sultan who is also Chairman of the ZCCF, called for 'non-humanitarian' international sanctions on Iraq to be lifted which, he said, had caused deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis and destroyed Iraq's economy and infrastructure. He also called upon the international community to apply pressure on Israel to stop its frenzied war against the Palestinian people. He wished justice would prevail all over the world because "it is through justice, and not war, that world peace and security could be achieved."

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