He then took questions from journalists.

"In their remarks about the reasons behind their criminal aggression, Clinton and Blair lied and lied to their people and to the world.

After the suspension of the current aggression, they gave an account of their achievements.

Here, they lied again.

As you know, during the aggression, Clinton and Blair and their officials - the military and political officials - focused on the Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard.

They said that they want to significantly diminish or weaken those forces in order to weaken the hold of the president of Iraq.

After the suspension of the aggression, they boasted great success in there.

The American chief of staff showed pictures about how successful his army was in doing that.

I will give you a full account of the human casualties, casualties of personnel among the Presidential Guard and the Special Presidential Guard, and then a full account of the casualties among all the other branches of the Army, including the Air Defence Force.

The Special Republican Guard: Two martyrs among the officers, one officer wounded.
Other personnel in the Special Republican Guard: 16 martyrs, 30 wounded.
In the Republican Guard, which makes, as they say, more than 50-, 60-, 70,000 numbers: One officer martyred, four wounded.
Other personnel: 19 martyred, 65 wounded.
The total number of casualties in the Republican Guard is 20 martyrs and 69 wounded.
The whole total of the two forces is 38 martyrs and 100 wounded in both the Special Republican Guard and the Republican Guard.
In all the other branches of the army, including the air defence, the figures are the following: 4 officers martyred, 15 wounded.
Other personnel: 20 martyrs, 65 wounded.
The total is 24 martyrs and 80 wounded.
The whole total of casualties in the military - the Republican Guard, the Special Republican Guard, and all other branches of the Iraqi Army: 62 martyrs and 180 wounded.

Of four days of intensive bombings with all the smart missiles and bombs and the hi-tech precision weapons, these are the real results.

This shows what these people are in reality.

They lie.

They boast.

'Justifying a criminal policy'

They disinform and misinform their people and the whole world in order to justify a criminal policy.

As we said before, the civilian casualties are much much higher than the military casualties.

What they really destroyed in their attacks are barracks of the Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard, and other branches of the army.

Barracks and buildings cannot be moved and cannot be protected against long-range missiles.

These barracks and buildings could be and will certainly be rebuilt; that is what happened after the aggression of 1991 and the following aggressions.

The serious damage was in the civilian area, in the civilian sides, exactly similar to what happened in 1991, the American way of war.

They attacked almost all the industrial sites which were under strict monitoring by UNSCOM and IAEA.

There were cameras and sensors in these sites and they were attacked.

Till the late evening of 15 December, they were under the inspection of UNSCOM and the Atomic Agency.

They had been inspected by them hundreds of times.

In all the bombings, no trace of chemical and biological weapons was detected.

The missile capabilities they attacked were under strict supervision by UNSCOM.

They were licensed by the resolutions they themselves adopted in 1991 and later.

This is another example that they do not respect even their own resolutions.

Well, here once again, I would like to refer to the civilian sides.

As you know, they have attacked buildings, government buildings, party buildings, radio and television facilities, communications facilities.

They attacked hospitals, private homes, schools, and other civilian sites, which are very well known to you.

You have visited many of those sites in Baghdad, and lately I was told that you were in al-Basrah, and you know what happened there.

This reminds me of what James Baker told me in Geneva in January 1991.

He told me: We will bring you back to the pre-industrial age.

So, this is the repetition of the same old policy of the United States against Iraq.

All their rhetoric about weapons of mass destruction is a bunch of lies.

They want to weaken Iraq.

They want to strip Iraq of any serious industrial capability.

They want to bring back to an underdeveloped country.

This is a policy of hatred.

This is an imperialist, colonialist policy.

This is not a policy of morals.

This is not a policy which is based on international law or any positive and moral objective, as they pretend to do.

They are criminals, and this aggression is a criminal aggression.

As regards the civilian casualties, you have been visiting hospitals and other places.

And we will be able also to show you the damage in this area.

I am ready to take your questions."

Questoins from reporters

CNN's Brent Sadler: Mr Aziz, what in the aftermath of Operation Desert Fox is your assessment now of where Iraq goes in trying to rebuild a relationship with the United Nations in the aftermath of this US and British strike? And how does Iraq react to the conditions which have been placed upon Iraq to have sanctions lifted and to have the weapons inspectors back in the country?

Tariq Aziz: Well, first of all, I made it clear in my previous appearance with you that we shall never, never accept any condition made by Clinton or Blair.

Iraq refuses all these conditions totally and strongly.

Secondly, we did not damage our relations with the United Nations.

They damaged the United Nations itself.

They damaged the Security Council, the power and the mandate of the Security Council.

They acted according to the law of the jungle.

They did not act according to international law.

So, it is their responsibility to rebuild their relations with the international community and their relations with the Security Council and the United Nations.

In this regard, any talk, any talk, any discussion, unilaterally, directly with us, or within the Security Council about the future, any talk of that kind, shall not be accepted by Iraq unless first that the aggressors should be made accounted for their aggression.

There was an aggression; this aggression should not be neglected.

It was not just one of the American movies, you look at it and then it is OK, we are finished with that, let us start again.

How could this aggression be neglected? This aggression should be the main focus of discussion in the Security Council or in any international forums.

First, then the aggressors should be accounted for this aggression.

And with that the embargo on Iraq should be lifted.

I told you here in our last meeting Iraq cannot tolerate the embargo and UNSCOM ; then the aggression was added.

So, if anybody wants to find a political solution, this is the legal and political solution to the current situation.

Muhammad Khayr al-Burini from al-Jazirah Space Channel: Nizar Hamdun, Iraq's envoy to the United Nations, was quoted as saying that thousands were killed and wounded during the US-British raids.

Is this true, and why is this not officially announced here in Baghdad?

Tariq Aziz: I said you will know the casualties among civilians by another means.

I wanted through this meeting to draw a complete picture of casualties among the army personnel, the Armed Forces, the Republican Guard, and the Special Guard.

Clinton, Blair, and the military and political leaders lied and exaggerated their criminal achievements with regard to the destruction of the Special Guard, the Republican Guard, and the valiant Iraqi army.

I wanted to give the Arab and international audience a fact to know that those are criminals, who want to harm , and at the same time take pride in achievements they did not make. ...

Question: What is your comment on a statement by a White House spokesman stressing that the military campaign against Iraq would not have taken place had there not been a certain support from the Arab countries? What information do you have about these countries, whose names were not mentioned by the United States?

The US spokesman said a number of Arab countries supported the aggression, but did not mention names.

We and you did not hear a president of an Arab government say he is in favour of the aggression.

What are we to conclude here? It is either that America lies, as it does in other issues - which is possible - or that there are actually Arab presidents who supported the aggression, but are afraid of expressing or announcing their position... ... The Americans and the British said they would end the attack before Ramadan, but in fact the attack continued into the first day of Ramadan. Do you think that they will resume their attack?

Tariq Aziz: About the second question first: We think, we strongly believe that what took place yesterday was not an end to the aggression, it was suspension of the aggression.

The aggression has been going on against Iraq since 1991.

It has never stopped.

It has taken different chapters, sometimes a military episode or chapter.

The economic aggression which is killing people and destroying material has been going on for eight years.

The no-fly zones which have been illegally imposed on Iraq is an aggression on the territorial integrity of Iraq, an aggression on the security of Iraq.

The conspiracies cooked in Washington and in London to destabilize the Iraqi national government, the money which is being used to finance those terrorist illegal acts; all these are aggressions, so the aggression has not stopped.

It is continuous.

For Iraq, the alarm, the precautions, and the arrangements to face this aggression have not been terminated.

We are still alert and there might be a repetition of military aggression some time after Ramadan.

As regards Ramadan, this is really a big hypocritical position that was taken by Clinton and Blair.

They said that they will start their aggression before Ramadan, which means that they should end it when Ramadan starts.

They did not.

They continued their aggression during the first day of Ramadan, and you should realize that they made attacks in the day, which they did not do in the previous days, because they wanted to wrap up the aggression in the first day of Ramadan.

The question is not Ramadan, the question is that they had assembled a limited amount of assets, a limited amount of missiles and bombs, a limited amount of aircraft ... etcetera.

They wanted to make a swift and quick aggression because the repercussions of the aggression in the Arab world, in the Islamic world, in the world at large will be greater and greater as long as the aggression is stretched.

So it was part of the tactic that it should take three or four days.

When they extended, when they found by the end of the three days that they still have some missiles to shoot, that there are some sites that they missed, they continued during Ramadan.

This tells you the realities behind the situation.

Ramadan is not the issue.

The issue is the aggression. ...

Question: Mr Aziz, I have got two quotes from Tony Blair which he has repeated many times, he said President Saddam Hussein is back in his cage and the whole world will rejoice if he fell.

What is Iraq's reaction to those statements?

Tariq Aziz: Well I have heard that.

This is the old rhetoric of a liar.

He accused my president of being a serial liar, but it proved that he is a serial liar, because as I said in our last meeting, the same prime minister appeared in the House of Commons in February and said: Look, we want to inspect those presidential sites because one of them is as large as Paris.

Then it appeared that all of them are just 32 square kilometres, so this is a big lie.

He did not apologize for that .

Now he is making a series of lies in justifying his unjustifiable position, and many honest British MP's and people have strongly condemned his position.

They have also criticized him because he has turned Britain into a tail of the fox which is in Washington.

So, what Blair says has no credibility... ... Your excellency the deputy prime minister, in your assessment can Russia play concerning the dual aggression, prevent this aggression, and in your opinion what can Russia do to support Iraq.

I do not want to speak on behalf of the Russian leadership, but I think that the aggression that has been committed against Iraq, either directly or indirectly was also an aggression against others.

It was an aggression against Russia because Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council.

The aggression was against the Security Council and the international role of Russia.

It is also the same for China .

If the international community is exposed to an aggression, then any party that is exposed to this aggression either directly or indirectly has to condemn this aggression.

Second, they have to help the victim of the aggression.

This is up to the Russian leadership.

The Duma has unanimously adopted a resolution asking the Russian Government to break the embargo imposed on Iraq.

I appreciate that and I hope it is going to be applied.

Question: I have two quick questions if you will be kind enough to answer them.

First of all, will you say clearly whether or not the UNSCOM weapons inspectors will be allowed to return to work in Iraq? The moment America and Britain launched missiles against Iraq, they killed UNSCOM.

So UNSCOM is their own casualty, not ours.

I may just ask the second question, it is this: You have said that the air strikes hit empty barrack buildings and factories which already had UNSCOM cameras inside them.

If that is the case, why have you not shown these places to the journalists in this room?

Tariq Aziz: I did not say that we are not going to show you, but you know we are just out of a severe aggression, and we have to prepare ourselves for the next steps.

There is a possibility that we will let you see the results of this criminal aggression... ...

Question: Mr Aziz, China Television.

The Iraqi side has said the during the past few days that there is no chance for UNSCOM to return and to the return of its Chairman Mr Butler.

So are you looking for a diplomatic solution after this bombardment?

Tariq Aziz: I said what the diplomatic solution should be.

First of all, condemnation of the aggression and the aggressors ; put the aggressors accountable for their aggression; lift the sanctions completely on Iraq.

This is the diplomatic solution - this the civilized solution to the situation if there is going to be a solution.

Without that, it will be difficult for Iraq to talk... ... The unstated intention of the American and British Governments has been to destabilize the government of Saddam Husayn.

There are some who suggest they are trying to foster rebellion in the south.

Question: What is your response to that attempt and what is your assessment of whether or not it will succeed or fail in the future?

Tariq Aziz: Well, my assessment of their intentions is that these are heinous intentions, illegal, illegitimate, and they have been condemned by every honest women and men in the world and even among some US citizens.

Because it is not the job of the United States and the British Government to decide the fate of the Government of Iraq.

But this tells you the realities about what I am saying, what I am defining as the Zionist-imperialist conspiracy.

They want to change this government, because this is a free, independent government.

It is not a ball in their hand; it does not yield to their position; it is not that kind of government which brings the oil prices from $21 to $10 just to serve their interest - I mean the interest of the Americans and the British - against their own national interest.

They want a government in Iraq who says yes.

We need to change the prices of oil from $15 to $10, do it prime minister of Iraq, and the prime minister of Iraq says: yes sir I will do it.

That is why they want to change this government.

As regards the results, I told you when I read those figures about the casualties in the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard, because they thought foolishly that when they send a few hundred missiles against Iraq, then the people of Iraq will uprise against their leadership and their leader.

This is fantasy.

This is Rambo-like fantasy.

The Iraqi people strongly genuinely support their leadership.

This leadership has been leading this country for 30 years.

They know it.

The leadership is part and parcel of the people of Iraq and therefore, all these heinous plans are a mockery.

People here laugh at them.

Go and ask ordinary people in the street, they speak and understand English, and they will tell you what their position is and what their feeling is towards those petty imperialist plans against the leadership and the government of Iraq. ...

Question: Mr Deputy Prime Minister, I might first just echo the request from my colleague at ITN for perhaps your consideration of a greater access to some of the sites targeted in operation Dessert Fox.

Lack of access or virtually no access might lead some to believe that the damage was greater than you are describing and that the sites are more sensitive than what you are describing.

But let me just ask you a question also, Fox News has learned that much of the telephone communication between Baghdad and al-Basrah in the south has been disrupted.

Is this an indication that there may be damage to the infrastructure here in Iraq that might be greater than you are describing?

Tariq Aziz: No I did not minimize the damage on the infrastructure, on the civilian infrastructure.

Do not misunderstand me.

I said the main result of this aggression was to weaken Iraq as a nation and to weaken the Iraqi people.

They boasted that they did something against the government, but they failed in that, and I gave the example about the Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard.

So I would like the people in the United States and in Britain and in the world at large to know that this aggression was against the people of Iraq.

It was not against weapons of mass destruction, it was not against the government of Iraq, even if the intentions against the government of Iraq are hostile intentions and illegal intentions.

They failed in that.

They made some success in hurting the ordinary citizen in Iraq and the people of Iraq as a whole.

The example you gave is one of those examples.

Question: So you can confirm that telephone communication between the north and south are severely disrupted?

Tariq Aziz: Yes.

The vice president mentioned that in his interview, in his meeting with you the other day.

Question: What about news of your intention to sue President Clinton or the United States over deployment of military force against Iraq.

Do you really intend to do so? How would you go about doing it if this were true? Do you expect to win such a law suit?

Tariq Aziz: I cannot say that we are preparing to enter a law suit.

Clinton is already facing a law suit in the Congress, and lets see what its outcomes will be .

This is not a personal issue.

I am not talking about Clinton in person.

If the President of the United States was Al Gore, Gerhard, or even Newt Gingrich they would have committed the same crime.

It is not a personal issue.

The issue is that the US and British governments are currently imperial ones.

The United States wants to dominate the world.

It finds an international vacuum, and international imbalance, and wants to achieve all its desires now.

It wants to seize the opportunity.

It is practically in control of the Gulf region and what is left is Iraq.

Iraq is challenging it because it is steadfast, independent and proud of this independence, and therefore the US wants to destroy it.

Britain is the tail.

Just like in the tale of Don Quixote, Don Quixote had Sancho Panza trailing behind him, Blair is the Sancho Panza of Don Quixote Clinton.

He wants a bite of the harvest that the US will reap from its control of the Gulf.

Britain has a well-known history of colonialism. ...

Question: To be clear, are you saying there are no conditions or circumstances short of ending the sanctions under which Iraq would allow any form of weapons inspections to resume?

The weapons inspectors were killed by the American and British missiles.

I cannot give them another life.

They have to do something to give another life to the UN and Security Council.

It is not our job, the job of Iraq, to give rebirth to the casualties of the American and British aggression.

It is up to America and Britain to rebuild their relations with the UN, to abide by the UN rule, by international law, by the charter of the UN, then we will see if that will be the case, of course then there will be a different world, and then everybody will act according to the new realities in this different world.

Source: Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV, 21st Dec 1998