Iraq: It's All About Oil

Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, claimed Thursday that the only reason U.S. troops would be coming to the region would be to take control of Iraq's oil.

Everybody needs oil, Aziz said, not only the U.S., but its allies, and CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports the official told a group of peace activists U.S. allies should be concerned.

"When America takes over the whole oil of the region, every nation is going to pay a price," he said.

Meanwhile, United Nations weapons inspectors seem to be digging in for the long haul.

This weekend they will be setting up a second base in northern Iraq, and taking to the air.

They will start aerial inspections over various portions of Iraq. They have had one helicopter for some time and several others have arrived. It will give them a better vantage point to take a look at new construction and pick out sites that they may want to inspect more closely on the ground.

Even though the report is due at the end of the month, it seems as though the inspectors are planning on staying in Iraq several months, reports Cowan.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reportedly is returning to Baghdad at Iraq's invitation in the 2nd half of January, a few days before his report to the Security Council is due.

It could be a very important meeting.

"It gives a chance for Iraq to sit down with him one more time and answer any questions he may have, and gives the U.N. inspectors one more chance face-to-face to ask certain questions that they don't feel have been answered so far," Cowan said.

Iraq Thursday also criticized the U.N. Security Council for adopting a U.S.-backed resolution that tightens controls on imports to Iraq, saying the measure would inflict "deliberate damage and harm to our people."

The resolution, passed Monday by a 13-0 vote with Russia and Syria abstaining, puts new limits on purchases of certain communications equipment and antibiotics which the United States and Britain said could be used by the Iraqi military in a war.

Washington and London have threatened to use military force against Iraq unless President Saddam Hussein's regime provides evidence it has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction as required by U.N. resolutions adopted at the time of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Gulf War.

U.N. arms experts have been in the country for more than a month inspecting sites to determine whether Iraq still has chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Inspection officials have said Iraq has not given a full accounting of its weapons programs, and the United States has accused Saddam's regime of continuing to hide banned weapons.

Aziz accused the United States on Thursday of going ahead with plans for war without awaiting the weapons inspectors' report on their findings.

"Despite the presence of the inspectors, U.S. aircraft carriers are heading to the region and U.S. and British soldiers are arriving and making preparations," he told a visiting Spanish delegation.

Iraq's criticism of the Security Council resolution came in editorials in the state-run press which is regularly used to express the government's views. The daily Al-Jumhuriya said the resolution, which deals with goods Iraq can import under the U.N. oil for food program, is new evidence of Washington's "hegemony" over the Security Council.

"This is a bad resolution which would lead to inflicting a deliberate damage and harm to our people," the paper said.

It said the members of the Security Council should "fulfill their responsibility, stand against the obvious U.S. domination of the council and ... foil the mad U.S. attempts to wage aggression on Iraq under the cover of the Security Council."

The daily Babil, which is owned by Saddam's son Odai, said the resolution is particularly disappointing because it came "when the Security Council is supposed to prepare the appropriate circumstances to lift the sanctions on Iraq and as the (U.N.) inspection teams are preparing to declare that Iraq is clear of weapons of mass destruction."

While the inspectors on the ground have offered no conclusions about their daily searches of military and commercial sites, Iraqi officials have said after virtually every inspection that the U.N. arms experts had found nothing illegal.

Aziz repeated the assertion Thursday and said he hoped Blix would declare the inspectors found no banned arms in a crucial report to the Security Council due at the end of the month.

"They came in search for weapons of mass destruction and they did not find any weapons," he said. "They demanded full cooperation and we provided them with such cooperation and we hope they will say so. Yet, we do not know what they are going to say," Aziz said.

On Thursday, inspectors visited Iraqi air force warehouses 30 miles north of Baghdad and the Ibn Firnas State Company, 11 miles northwest of the city, which makes drones for the air force.

Gen. Ibrahim Hussein, general director of the Ibn Firnas Company, said he had cooperated with the inspectors but complained that they had made repeated visits — sometimes lasting four or five hours — and each time asked similar questions.

"It is unacceptable to repeat the same activities every day and spend a long time because this affects our work," he told reporters.

They also made a return visit to the al-Fat'h military industry site 18 miles west of Baghdad. They did not say why they returned to the facility, which conducts research and development on missiles and rockets.