Russia has given the United States written assurance that it did not provide Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with information on U.S. plans to invade Iraq in 2003, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, the AFP reported.
The chief US diplomat, testifying before Congress, said that her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, had given her a Russian government letter at a meeting last week in Berlin of the five veto-wielding UN Security Council members on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program. According to the letter, “the Russian government does not believe that contact took place” between Saddam Hussein and the Russian ambassador to Baghdad at the time, Vladimir Titorenko, she said.
Lavrov “told me that he believes that any such contact would have been highly inappropriate for an ambassador of Russia,” she added.
“Of course, we will continue to look into the matter,” she told lawmakers, saying the U.S. administration was trying to verify the authenticity of documents which indicate Moscow tipped off the Iraqi dictator about US plans for the March 20, 2003 invasion, despite Russia's denial.
"We are looking, of course, at the document itself and trying to ascertain really how reliable it is," she said, adding that Washington would take "very seriously" any suggestion that a foreign government had passed on information that might have endangered US troops. Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos of California said Russia's explanation would be key to lawmakers' deciding whether to urge the administration and other major industrialized governments to meet without Russia in advance of this year's G-8 summit. Russia, this year's G-8 chairman, is to host the summit in St. Petersburg but Lantos said a meeting beforehand excluding Russia would bring together "the true democracies" in the G-8 grouping.