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Iran, Iraq, Syria producing bio weapons, U.S. charges

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, July 31, 2001

WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has accused Iran, Iraq and Syria of producing biological weapons.

U.S. officials said these programs are in violation of the 1972 ban on biological weapons. The accusation was the first that publicly identified Damascus as being engaged in both chemical and biological weapons. The accusation was made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and later supported by Secretary of State Colin Powell. The two secretaries were attending a meeting in Canberra, Australia.

"When the treaty was signed, it was clear the people participating thought it was not verifiable," he told the Australian newspaper. "It is something that has been signed on to by countries like Syria, Iran and Iraq -- a number of nations that are not noted for their restraint in some of these issues."

In Damascus, Syrian officials denied that their country has deployed biological weapons and said Rumsfeld ignores Israeli weapons of mass destruction. The officials said the Bush administration was seeking to justify its refusal to sign a revised treaty to ban biological weapons.

Last week, the United States rejected revisions to the Biological Weapons Convention. U.S. officials said the changes would allow industrial espionage in Western countries while failing to stop the biological weapons programs of rogue states.

As a result, negotiators at the United Nations said efforts to revise the biological weapons treaty have been postponed until November. In November, the UN will hold a conference to review the treaty.

"What is at issue is a 210-page document which I doubt any other head of state has even bothered reading which in the name of making that treaty more enforceable would actually allow Libyan and Iraqi inspectors to start poking around American pharmaceutical companies," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said. "It's ill-conceived, and that's the problem. It's not that there's any quarrel with a treaty that will limit biological weapons, but the details are very important."

Tuesday, July 31, 2001



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