South African Foreign Affairs deputy minister Aziz Pahad will leave for Baghdad, Iraq, within the next few days to urge President Saddam Hussein to fully cooperate with the United Nations (UN) weapons inspectors to avert a looming US-led war, the South African government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday.
Briefing reporters at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on his planned visit to Baghdad, Pahad, who returned on Friday from a trip to the Gulf, said he would urge the Iraqi leadership to declare its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and to open its programmes up for UN scrutiny.
He added that he would appeal to the Iraqis to also answer questions posed by chief UN inspector Hans Blix in his report to the UN. Pahad is expected to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, but said it would be more appropriate if he met with President Hussein.
President Thabo Mbeki told British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the weekend that he would be sending Pahad to meet with the Iraqi leadership, which stands accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction.
Pahad’s visit, part of the government’s attempt to avert war in the volatile region, will be his second to the oil rich country after visiting last year to deliver President Mbeki’s letter to his counterpart, calling on the latter to cooperate fully with the weapons inspectors.
Asked about former President Nelson Mandela’s recent remarks that the US would plunge the world into a holocaust should it proceed with its planned action, Minister Pahad said Mandela was expressing his opinion, which reflected that of the global civil society, who were demanding the aversion of a possible war.
He further added that he would call on former foreign affairs minister Pik Botha later to discuss his planned trip to Baghdad. Botha is said to be planning to leave for Iraq to warn President Hussein of the dangers of not cooperating with the UN inspectors.
Pahad also said efforts by civil society bodies to throw their weight behind plans to stop war were welcomed, and governments needed to listen to voices such as those of Roelf Meyer and religious leaders such as Pope John Paul.
South Africa, which chairs the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Union, has repeatedly called for a peaceful solution to the standoff between Washington and Baghdad, which many have said would throw the globe into a deep economic and political turmoil.
Pahad said South Africa, as the only nation to have declared its nuclear arsenal, had a ”historic and moral duty ” to persuade other nations to abandon their nuclear weapons programmes.
The country has been praised by Hans Blix for destroying its arsenal and inviting the UN in 1993 to carry out a full probe without any restrictions.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to present his country’s evidence to the UN on Wednesday, which the Bush administration said compelled it to disarm Iraq militarily.
However, African Union leaders, who are meeting in Addis Ababa today and tomorrow, say any action against Iraq should be on a UN mandate.-I-Net Bridge