Iraq is ready to keep alive UN dialogue: FM

11/07/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Iraq is Waiting for Annan to Make Next Move|| Iraq Accuses Blix of Blocking Last Round of Vienna Talks at the Behest of Washington||New York Times: Jordan Being Considered as Potential Base for Attack on Iraq|| STORY: Iraq wants to keep alive its talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, which broke down last week over the resumption of arms inspections in Iraq, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said.

"We are going to pursue contacts with the UN secretary general," he told Iraqi television.

But Sabri said Baghdead was waiting for Annan to take the next step.

On Tuesday, Sabri accused Hans Blix, the chief UN arms inspector for Iraq, of having blocked, at Washington's behest, last week's talks in Vienna.

The talks -- the third in a series since the dialogue between the United Nations and Iraq reopened at the beginning of the year -- terminated Friday without an agreement by Baghdad to accept the return of UN weapons inspectors, barred from the country since they pulled out in December 1998.

Neither did the talks yield an agreement or tentative plans for a continuation of the sessions, as was the case after the previous rounds.

The US administration has repeatedly threatened to launch a military strike to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, which it accuses of looking to develop an arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Iraq has been living under UN-imposed trade sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Those sanctions will only be lifted after the UN verifies Baghdad no longer harbours any programme to build weapons of mass destruction.

JORDAN A POTENTIAL US BASE OF ATTACK ON IRAQ

Bases in US Middle Eastern ally Jordan are being considered as the launchpad for a potential US attack on Baghdad, according to the New York Times.

Bases in Jordan, which has yet to be consulted on the plan it has publicly criticized, would facilitate a US attack on Iraq to topple longtime leader Saddam Hussein by allowing US forces to wage their campaign from the west, from the north through Turkey and the south through Gulf states.

US forces could also take up positions between Iraq and Israel to guard against possible retaliatory strikes from Baghdad on the Jewish state, as happened during the Gulf War in 1991, military sources told the daily Wednesday.

US officials have maintained that US President George W. Bush has broached the subject of an attack on Iraq with Jordan's King Abdullah, but speaking from Amman, Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher emphasized that "Jordan will not be used as a launching pad and we do not have any US forces in Jordan."

PHOTO CAPTION

American military planners are considering Jordan as a staging area for air and commando raids against Iraq in the event the United States decides to attack, the New York Times quoted senior defense officials as saying July 10, 2002. But Jordan has not yet been consulted about the possible use of its bases, and Jordanian officials have criticized such a plan. A Jordanian woman is seen in this June 9 file photo looking at a poster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at the Iraqi Trade Fair in Amman. (Ali Jarekji/Reuters)
- Jul 10 3:37 AM ET