The Hindu : Iraq, U.N. meet `positive'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 09, 2002

International

International

Iraq, U.N. meet `positive'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington MARCH 8. The United Nations and Iraq have concluded their one day meeting on Thursday on a positive note even if no formal agreements or understandings have been reached on outstanding issues.

The Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has described his meeting with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, as being "frank and useful''. For his part, Mr. Sabri said that the two sides had laid out their respective concerns. "... we had a positive and constructive exchange of views on these concerns."

A statement has described the two sides focussing on such issues as return of weapons inspectors, the missing Kuwaits and Iraqis and ways in which Baghdad could return some of the Kuwaiti property through the United Nations. Iraq had raised a number of issues and heading that list was the lifting of sanctions, the no-fly zones established by the United States and Britain and elimination of weapons of mass destruction from West Asia — Baghdad's reference to Israel's nuclear programme.

Though very few in the world body and outside expected major breakthroughs, the meeting was followed keenly as it was the first high level contact between Baghdad and the United Nations for over one year, the last meeting being in February 2001. That this initial meeting went off well is seen from the two sides agreeing for further discussions by the middle of next month. "It was agreed that the two parties would meet for further discussions in mid-April based on a well defined agenda agreed in advance," a spokesman for the Secretary-General said.

While Iraq has been working overtime diplomatically to have the decade old sanctions regime removed or eased substantially, the West led by the U.S. and Britian are keen on getting the weapons inspectors back into Iraq after leaving that country in 1998. The impression has been that while Iraq may have fully accounted for its nuclear materials and missiles, there are major gaps when it came to chemical and biological weapons.

Reuters reports from Baghdad:

An Iraqi newspaper today said the U.S. President, George W. Bush, would fail in his efforts to overthrow the government of the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein.

``Once again the evil American administration has started airing threats against Iraq, its revolutionary government and people, of a massive attack aimed at the government,'' the al-Iraq newspaper said.

``The terrorist Bush has to understand that we will prevail, and that he is the one who will disappear like his tyrant father Bush Senior, Clinton and all the Presidents who have launched aggression against us,'' it said.

``Bush has to understand that Saddam Hussein is not like other rulers and his government, a government of principles and values, is not like other regimes that obey orders from foreigners.''

The paper said Mr. Bush would fail to oust the Iraqi government, as had his father, who ``launched a massive attack on Iraq assembling highly-developed technology and a coalition of the world's evil states.''

The United States led a coalition war against Iraq in 1991 to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait following seven months occupation.

U.S. policymakers have agonised since then over whether to remove Mr. Saddam or box him with U.N. sanctions, weapons inspectors, no-fly zones and diploma<137>

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