Translated material
“Primakov came to express solidarity”
—Have people in Baghdad gotten used to the fact that war is inevitable?
- Not at all. Moreover, Iraq has always cooperated with international disarmament inspectors and is cooperating now. The issue is not weapons of mass destruction. There are no such weapons in Iraq, I assure you. This is just a pretext for the American imperialists to seize Iraq's oil fields. This way the Americans will be able to dictate fuel prices to the world and thereby rule the world.
— Is it true that during his recent visit to Iraq, Yevgeny Primakov asked the country’s leadership to cooperate even more with international inspectors in order to avoid war?
- These are idle speculations. Such demands make no sense. Iraq already cooperates very closely with the inspectors. As for Primakov, he is an experienced diplomat and specialist in the Middle East. I myself met him several times. He has been known to our leadership since the 70s, when he worked as a correspondent in the region.
— In 1991, on the eve of the war, Primakov was also in Baghdad on a peacekeeping mission. But he did not achieve success. Why?
- I don’t know why. In any case, Primakov is one of those people in Russia who actually have experience working in the Middle East.
— There is an assumption that Primakov discussed the possibility of granting political asylum to President Saddam...
- There is no question of this under any circumstances. This is dirty gossip, it's just funny. None of the Iraqi leadership is going to leave Baghdad. None of the normal, self-respecting people would ever suggest this to our president. Moreover, Primakov could not touch on this topic.
- Why then did he go to Baghdad? What did you want to convince the Iraqis of?
- Nothing. Primakov came to express solidarity with Iraq. This is another manifestation of support against the backdrop of the criminal policy of the United States, which is fraught with serious complications throughout the region, and in the world as a whole.