WASHINGTON, February 13: United States has expressed serious concern over the reported Russian deal with Iraq to supply dual purpose equipment that could be used in developing biological weapons.However, Washington went on to say that it had not received any official confirmation on the alleged deal. "I don't know about any such deal,"Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at the House International Relations Committee hearing yesterday. "We have no independent confirmation and the Russians to date have denied it. We certainly will follow it up because we see it as a very serious issue," she said.
The Washington Post yesterday reported that United Nations inspectors in Iraq found evidence of a 1995 agreement by the Russian government to sell sophisticated equipment to Baghdad which would vastly enhance its germ warfare capacity. The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said that in the autumn of 1997, inspectors seized a confidential document prepared by Iraqi officials that described lengthynegotiations leading to a deal worth millions of dollars. Meanwhile, Russia has strongly denied the report.
Albright, to a question by the senior Democrat on the committee, Congressman Lee Hamilton, said, "Much of what is in the germ warfare story is based on information that is not available to the US government. This is not surprising, for United Nations Special Commission, which presumably leaked the story, is an independent organisation and they have some information that we don't have." Russia, she said, had been working to strengthen its export controls and "we have engaged the Russians to investigate incidents as we become aware of them." In the case of gyroscopes, supplied by the Russia to Iraq allegedly for their missiles, Albright said, "It appears to have been a smuggling operation and we are concerned about it."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
