Iraq Says, “Japan Is Our Third Enemy”

Yomiuri Newspaper reported on 27th that Iraq has indicated Japan as their third enemy country after the U.S. and England due to Japan’s cooperative attitude to the U.S.

Taha Yasshin Ramadan, Iraq’s Vice President, had a conference on 26th with Sto Nobuhiko, a member of Japanese democratic party who is currently visiting Iraq and pin pointed out, “When Japan was a non-permanent nation of the UN Security Council, Japan opposed the relief on Iraq’s economic restraint. And being different from various Asian countries who have friendly relationships with Iraq, Japan has closed its door.”

Also he expressed his discontentment by stating, “It is unavoidable if Japan aligns with the U.S. to join the attack on Iraq but shouldn’t Japan dispatch a high-ranking official to investigate the real state of affairs before aligning?” However, Iraq has not stated what kind of action they are going to take against Japan for its alignment with the U.S.

Japan has already sent out the Japan Marine Self Defense Aegis Vessel, ‘Kirishima (7250 Ton)’ to the Indian Ocean on the 16th in order to be the rear supporter in case of the U.S. attack on Iraq.

Tokyo Newspaper reported that Japan is also examining the plan to dispatch their Land Self Defense for disposal of the biochemical weapons if the U.S. supports the reconstruction of Iraq after the war. Japan has concluded that there must be a new regulation regarding the rear supporting of the U.S. Army and various armies of other countries just like their special action of countermeasure against terrorism to support the U.S.’s attack on Afghanistan and is planning to submit a bill in the upcoming regular session of the National Assembly, which begins in January 20th 2003.

The major responsibilities of the Self Defense include supplying transportation to the U.S. and it’s alignments and disposing the biochemical weapons such as anthrax virus, believed to be possessed by Iraq. Thus, within Japan, there has been an atmosphere urging carefulness of this plan since the dispatch of the Land Self Defense Force may be more dangerous than the activities of the UN’s Peace Keeping Operations (PKO).

On the other side, Hossam Mohamed Amin of Iraqi National Security Council, has stated on 26th that “Iraq will summit the list of those scientists who have been working on the development programs of nuclear and biochemical weapons as well as the missiles within two to three days.” However, he clarified that Iraq opposes the foreign interviews of these scientists.

By stating that there has been a major flaw as well as the omission on their submitted report on the weapon of mass destruction, the U.S. and England has been insisting the interviews of the major Iraqi scientists to be done in order to get the precise information on the weapon development. The U.S. anticipates the possibility of the internal complaint on the current concealed weapon development project if those scientists who have been associated with the weapon development go through direct and indirect interviews.

Young-Ee Lee yes202@donga.com