Austrian Defends Visit to Iraq
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VIENNA — Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider on Wednesday defended a controversial visit to Iraq and accused the United States of picking on Baghdad as a pretext for building up its arms industry.
Haider, the ex-leader of the far-right Freedom Party, met Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday, prompting a rebuke from the U.S. State Department.
Haider said his visit was humanitarian in nature.
“I handed over equipment for a blood bank in Baghdad mainly to help children suffering from leukemia,” he said at a news conference in Klagenfurt.
The Iraqi newspaper Al Thawra said Haider had called for U.N. sanctions on Iraq to be lifted.
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