Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said on Thursday, in his first comment on UN weapons inspections since the teams resumed their work, that he was prepared to give them a chance to prove Iraq had no banned weapons. ‘‘The basis (for accepting the UN resolution).is to keep our people out of harm’s way amid an international situation in which some might claim we (Iraq) didn’t give them (the Inspectors) the chance to disprove the American allegations that Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction during the period of the inspectors’ absence,’’ he said in comments carried on Iraqi television. ‘‘For that reason we shall provide them with such a chance, after which, if the weaklings remain weak and the cowardly remain cowards, then we shall take the stand that befits our people, principles and mission,’’ he told the Iraqi leadership when he met them to congratulate them on the Eid al-Fitr festival. So far Iraq has made a show of cooperating with the inspectors, and appears to have allowed them unrestricted access to the suspect sites they have visited since resuming their work in November In an address in Baghdad on Wednesday, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan accused the inspectors of spying for the US and Israel. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday shrugged off criticism of a decision to send a high-tech destroyer to the Indian Ocean, a move analysts say signals Tokyo’s tacit backing for a possible US attack on Iraq. The decision which domestic critics argue could violate Japan’s pacifist Constitution followed intense, if informal, pressure from Washington to dispatch the destroyer equipped with a state-of-the-art Aegis missile detection system. Koizumi and other officials pitched the dispatch of the Aegis destroyer later this month as part of the support extended under last year’s counter-terrorism law — legislation officials have said would be tough to apply to any direct action against Iraq. ‘‘We made a comprehensive decision in order to ensure smooth support operations. There will always be people who say something is a problem no matter what you do,’’ Koizumi said.
