LONDON: Iraq is wooing friends and foes alike in a campaign to forestall any move by the United States to target Baghdad in its war on global terrorism, diplomats say. This month, Iraq’s preventive diplomacy has encompassed overtures to old enemies Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and China.
Diplomats see all this as a defensive reaction to tough talk in the US administration, including President George W. Bush’s threat that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will face consequences if he fails to let UN weapons inspectors resume their work.
“This diplomatic offensive appears aimed at averting any possible military action against Iraq in the short term,” said a Western diplomat in the Middle East. “Saddam seems convinced he would eventually be targeted by the United States as part of the war on terrorism. He is trying to build up Arab and international opposition to such an attack,” the diplomat said.
Many European countries, along with Russia, China and most of the Arab world, oppose any attack on Iraq, saying there is no proof it was linked to the September 11 attacks on the United States blamed on Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.
The return of UN weapons inspectors, who left Baghdad in December 1998, is a key condition for any progress towards lifting UN sanctions imposed for Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Iraq has given no public sign that it is willing to let the inspectors back, but even sympathetic Arab governments know that Baghdad must somehow satisfy UN Security Council demands.
“It’s in the Arab interest to safeguard Iraq, but getting it off the hook must be done within Security Council resolutions,” an Arab diplomat said. “I don’t expect things to happen easily.”
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz has been in Moscow and Beijing to drum up support and is expected to return to Moscow for more talks on UN sanctions on Thursday.
He could draw comfort from an apparent stiffening of China’s opposition to more military action to combat terrorism, but he was also told of the need to cooperate with the United Nations.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Moscow opposed any US military action against Iraq and wanted sanctions lifted. Aziz’s visits to the two permanent UN Security Council members precede consultations on February 6-8 in Geneva where US and Russian officials will try to agree a list of goods that can be allowed into Iraq without UN approval.
The US wants a switch to “smart sanctions”, which would expand the list of permitted goods while tightening controls over imports deemed usable for military purposes. It may wait until May, when the UN oil-for-food programme comes up for renewal, before taking any drastic steps.
“The Iraqis are feeling the heat from the kitchen,” one Arab diplomat said, alluding to the Bush team’s bellicose rhetoric. “They are trying to work out something before the May deadline.
Iraq has approached the Spanish presidency of the EU for a high-level dialogue on UN sanctions and other issues, EU diplomats in New York said on Monday. In another unusual show of flexibility, Iraq said on Monday it would allow a UN human rights investigator, Andreas Mavrommatis of Cyprus, to visit for the first time in a decade.
Saddam declared on Sunday that he would welcome a visit to Iraqi prisons by Kuwaiti officials to prove there are no Kuwaiti prisoners left from Baghdad’s invasion 11 years ago. Resolving the prisoner issue and ending threats to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are other terms for removing sanctions.
Keen to minimise any threat from his eastern flank, Saddam sent his foreign minister, Naji Sabri, to Tehran last week to pursue rapprochement with Iraq’s foe in the 1980-88 Gulf War. The two sides vowed to improve ties, notably by repatriating more prisoners of war, and Sabri said Iran would resume direct flights to Baghdad.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa is trying to reconcile Iraq with US allies Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Moussa said after visiting Baghdad this month that Saddam had asked him to convey an initiative to the United Nations and Arab leaders before the Beirut summit. He gave no details.—Reuters
