What formal response, if any, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has made to a letter he received this weekend from President Thabo Mbeki remained unknown late on Sunday.
The letter reportedly commends the Iraqi leader for offering United Nations weapons inspectors unconditional access to his country.
According to a report in the Sunday Times, it invites Hussein to ”convey to him (Mbeki) any concerns about the imminent weapons inspection”, saying South Africa would raise these with the UN and individual Western nations.
The letter was delivered to Hussein in Baghdad on Saturday via his deputy, Taha Ramadan, by South African Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad.
Pahad arrived in the capital last week to open South Africa’s stand at the city’s International Trade Fair.
Mbeki’s representative, Bheki Khumalo, said on Sunday he did not know if Hussein had responded to the president’s letter, and referred all queries in this regard to foreign affairs. Comment from this ministry was not immediately available.
Pahad’s diplomatic letter drop comes against a background of growing concern about the possibility of United States military action against Iraq. which the US accuses of producing and possessing weapons of mass destruction.
Adding to the tension, Hussein on Sunday warned — in an interview published in an Egyptian newspaper — that an attack on Iraq would not be an easy task for the invaders. ”We will never make it a picnic for the American and British soldiers,” the Iraqi leader said.
According to the Sunday Times, Mbeki told Hussein that weapons inspections, if conducted objectively, ”would lead to a comprehensive resolution of Iraq’s political and economic woes, as well as the hostility with its neighbours and the UN”.
Last week, UN sources were reported as saying the adoption next week by the UN Security Council (UNSC) of a resolution on Iraq, would lead to preliminary weapons inspections by the end of the year.
Inspections of sites suspected of manufacturing or stocking chemical or biological weapons, or missiles to deliver them, were unlikely to start for at least two months after that.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said he expects the council to adopt a resolution late next week instructing the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) to resume inspections within 45 days.
It is reported that UNMOVIC chairman, Hans Blix, together with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohammed El-Baradei, will lead an advance party of up to 20 people to Baghdad ”a week to 10 days after the council vote”.
The IAEA is tasked with verifying Iraq’s claim that it has no nuclear weapons programme.
South Africa last week urged the security council to give the go-ahead as soon as possible for weapons inspections in Iraq, saying this was the only way of averting armed conflict.
”The South African government reiterates its call on the UNSC to arrive rapidly at a decision that will allow UNMOVIC to execute its mandate,” foreign affairs said in a statement at the time.
Pahad last week told journalists in Pretoria that his talks in Baghdad would centre around ”trying to ensure that their decision to let in UN inspectors unconditionally must mean unconditionally and that no pretext should be given for any military action against Iraq”.
He said one of the aims of his visit was to get the Iraqi view on this matter, as well as their understanding of the way forward. – Sapa