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TITLE: Big-Power Unity Seen Needed for Iraq Talks Success |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: Reuters |
DATE: March 1, 2001 |
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - With major Security Council powers at odds over policies toward Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed for unity so he could negotiate properly with Baghdad officials in the future. Reporting on two days of talks with an Iraqi government delegation this week, Annan acknowledged late on Wednesday that no new proposals had emerged to break the impasse over sanctions and U.N. weapons inspections. Instead, the Iraqis had submitted a stack of documents purporting to show why the decade-old sweeping embargoes should be dropped immediately. Given the intense nature of discussions among council members, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent trip to the Middle East, Annan said he hoped the 15-member body could agree "on certain critical questions and to restore unity" before his next round of talks in April or May. He spoke to reporters after briefing the Security Council. In response, Russia and France said members had to clarify precisely what Iraq had to do to get a suspension of the sanctions, imposed after Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Both countries said the clarifications, including a time frame between arms inspections and the suspension of sanctions, would help Annan in his negotiations. Getting arms inspectors back into Iraq is a key requirement before the sanctions can be lifted or eased further. Iraq has not allowed them to return since they left on the eve of a December 1998 U.S.-British bombing raid. But the five permanent members of the council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - have been unable to agree for years on contentious clarifications, thereby leaving sections of resolutions and vague statements to paper over differences. The last major resolution on Iraq, in December 1999, drew abstentions from Russia and China - and at the last minute from France - as well as a rejection from Baghdad. That document outlined measures toward a suspension of sanctions if Iraq cleared up questions on its weapons of mass destruction. The United States is reviewing its policies toward Baghdad, which might include monitoring its borders and pressuring such countries as Jordan or Turkey to cut brisk illegal trade with Iraq. Powell succeeded in getting Syria to place oil flowing from Iraq under U.N. supervision, which still controls the bulk of Baghdad's oil revenues. Powell also wants to ease sanctions on civilian goods going to Iraq, and remove some of its "holds" on $3 billion dollars worth of supplies for infrastructure repairs, which Washington had promised to do nearly a year ago. But so far diplomats say Powell's attempts to seek a common ground with France have been unsuccessful following months of strained relations between Washington and Paris on this issue. Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who led the delegation to New York, rejected weapons inspections but said he might agree to non-intrusive monitoring if other countries in the region submitted to the same, starting with Israel. But British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said the goal of a Middle East without dangerous arms was "an aspiration." The council had to focus on Iraq first because "that is the business where there is a real security threat." Confident it has Arab opinion on its side, the Iraqi delegation on Monday and Tuesday alternated from anti-U.S. rhetoric to conciliatory words about seeking a way out of the deadlock. Al-Sahaf characterized Powell's comments to rethink sanctions and ease the sufferings of ordinary Iraqis as "rubbish," and a "stupid" ploy to deceive public opinion. Several diplomats, however, said he left his supporters with little positive news, such as movement on the fate on missing Kuwaitis during Iraq's 1990 occupation of the emirate. END |