Do not attend UN meeting on Iraq

The United States is warning Caricom member states against attending the United Nations Special General Assembly in which the war in Iraq is expected to be condemned.

While Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday said he was unaware of such a caution from the US government, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Danny Montano yesterday admitted that the Ministry did receive correspondence on March 18 from the US Embassy in Port-of-Spain. In it the US stated that it would view the UN Special Session as against the US and may lead  Iraq to believe it has divided the international community. While des-cribing the letter as odd, Montano did not regard it as a threat. He said it is a “non-issue” because  no date has been set by the UN for the session. Montano said the US position is noted but TT supported the UN’s stance on the war against Iraq. A newspaper report in Jamaica quoted a letter from the US government saying it would “frown deeply” on that country’s participation in the General Assembly. There US State Department also reportedly wrote to the Barbados government stressing that the US would see its participation as “inimical to its national interest.”