president George W. Bush, and suggests that the two should engage in a televised debate. February 27 - Pre-Iraq invasion Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar personally asks United States President George W. Bush to silence Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, indicating that Rumsfeld's numerous public remarks on European countries' Iraq policies are generally viewed as inflammatory and overwhelmingly counterproductive within the European diplomatic community. Aznar indicated a preference for Secretary of State Colin Powell. Regarding the disarmament of Iraq, the chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, says "The results in terms of disarmament have been very limited so far." Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, announced his support to the United States and United Kingdom campaign against Iraq. February 28 - Pre-Iraq invasion Iraq begins the process of destroying Al Samoud two missiles on March 1. Hans Blix, U.N. chief weapons inspector said "It is a very significant piece of real disarmament". However, the spokesman of the White House, Ari Fleischer declared that the Iraq commitment to destroy these missiles is a fraud that President George W. Bush had predicted, and indicated that the United States wanted a total and complete disarmament of Iraq. He also repeated that if the United Nations did not act to disarm Baghdad, the United States would lead a coalition of voluntary countries to disarm Saddam Hussein. Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chrétien indicates that he believes that regime change is a dangerous goal for an invasion of Iraq, and that disarmament only should be the goal of international pressure. It is reported that, citing "national interest" as a reason, the British government under Margaret Thatcher contributed approximately £1bn of taxpayer money to Iraq under Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. Most of this money went into military infrastructure built by British companies such as GEC-Marconi. March March 1 - Pre-Iraq invasion The United Arab Emirates calls for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid war. The sentiment is later echoed by Bahrain and Kuwait. The Turkish speaker of Parliament voids the vote accepting U.S. troops involved in the planned invasion of Iraq into Turkey on constitutional grounds. 264 votes for and 250 against accepting 62,000 US military personnel do not constitute the necessary majority under the Turkish constitution, due to 19 abstentions. Under U.N. supervision, Iraq begins destroying four of its Al Samoud missiles. March 2 - Iraq destroys six more