Veteran Italian statesman Giulio Andreotti said Wednesday he sees there is no political or terrorist link between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda terrorist chief Osama bin Laden.
Speaking to the press at the Italian Senate, the seven-time premier observed that "there is no evidence of a political or terrorist link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden... and if there are no documents to establish an alliance between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden then the US attack on Iraq is illegitimate."
Andreotti, a Christian Democrat who served as foreign minister in several postwar Italian governments, added that "it would be a totally different situation if the Americans had obtained proof of ties between the Iraqi president and the terrorist."
"In this case, the international community could have accepted the idea that this was a continuation of the war in Afghanistan," the life senator explained.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2003)
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