Free Republic

Flash 21 News in Japanese today states that US Secretary of State Powell has sent an urgent message of THANKS to both Prime Minister Koizumi and Foreign Minister Kawaguchi of Japan for Japan's statement on 20 February 2003 in STRONG support of the United States on the Iraq issue, vowing to back up the United States if force is eventually required to disarm Saddam Hussein per United Nations disarmament resolutions that have already been passed.Powell is heading to Japan very shortly and will also relay the appreciation of the American people.

<p>ROME, Italy (CNN) --Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said in an interview with CNN on Saturday that it would be "unacceptable" for U.N. weapons inspectors to destroy Iraqi missiles found to violate U.N. limits and dismissed the idea of sending U.N. peacekeepers to Iraq.</p>

No one expected Hans Blix to restore, at a stroke or in one speech, unity over Iraq among Security Council members. Equally, however, few expected him actually to widen the divide between them by what he said on Friday. Yet the overall balance of what the chief United Nations inspector had to tell the Council about the state of Iraqi disarmament will reinforce the belief by France, Russia and Germany in continuing inspections as the right alternative to war. At the same time, it will stoke the impatience of the US and Britain that Baghdad's lack of full co-operation...