Iraq is drafting a reply to a UN letter demanding to know if it agrees to a resumption of weapons inspections and has still not ruled out striking a deal, diplomats said on Tuesday.
Baghdad had on Monday undermined international hopes for renewed UN arms monitoring when Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said weapons inspectors had finished their work in Iraq.
”To say, as the United States does, that Iraq possesses prohibited weapons is pure invention. The teams of inspectors finished their work,” Sahhaf told Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite television channel.
”The work of the United Nations … on the so-called prohibited arms has been accomplished,” he said.
Diplomats said Sahhaf appeared to be re-stating Iraq’s long-held view and was not totally ruling out a return of inspectors.
”Iraq has expressed more than once its readiness to agree to a return of weapons inspectors in exchange for the respect by the United Nations Security Council of its commitments to Iraq,” a Western diplomat told AFP.
”Iraqis believe and are still totally convinced that they can reach a just settlement to all their problems with the UN on condition that the United States does not interfere in this dialogue,” he added, on condition of anonymity.
And comments later on Monday by Foreign Minister Naji Sabri reinforced the view that Sahhaf had not ruled out a return of inspectors when he said Iraq was still readying a response to demands from the United Nations for unconditional inspections.
”We are preparing a reply to his excellency the UN secretary general,” Sabri told reporters here without elaborating. Kofi Annan’s letter to Sabri was in response to an Iraqi invitation to the head of the UN arms inspectorate, Hans Blix, to visit Baghdad for talks on the possible resumption of inspections.
The inspections were interrupted in 1998 and Iraq has not
allowed them to resume. In his letter, Annan asked the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to confirm that it agreed to the Security Council’s terms on disarmament and weapons inspections before Blix accepted the invitation to Baghdad.
The letter, with copies to all members of the Security Council, emphasised that Iraq must comply with every point of Resolution 1284, the last major overhaul of the council’s Iraq policy, adopted in 1999.
A US State Department representative scoffed at the latest statements from Baghdad.
”I don’t see any particular news in that. I think we’ve been quite clear that Iraq continues to refuse to give a straightforward answer to the UN,” representative Philip Reeker said.
”(The Iraqi government) refused to face up to their obligations and continue to obfuscate and look for ways to move the goal posts when it’s a simple situation. (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) understands exactly what need to be done: that is comply fully with the UN Security Council resolutions and disarm.”
UN representative Fred Eckhard declined to comment on Sahhaf’s remarks, saying the organisation was still waiting for a reply to Annan’s letter.
Washington has repeatedly accused Iraq of harbouring terrorists and developing biological and chemical weapons.
US President George Bush has called for a change of regime in Iraq ”by any means necessary,” but also has promised to consult allies and the US Congress before taking any action.
However, most members of the US-led international coalition in Afghanistan, including European allies and especially those in the Middle East, have expressed serious reservations about US calls to expand the war against terrorism to Iraq. – Sapa-AFP