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Iraq, UN talks end upbeat but no decisions
The first high-level talks between the United Nations and Iraq in a year ended on a positive note on Thursday with both sides agreeing to meet next month. But there was no decision on whether Baghdad would allow UN arms inspectors to return.
The first high-level talks between the United Nations and Iraq in a year ended on a positive note on Thursday with both sides agreeing to meet next month. But there was no decision on whether Baghdad would allow UN arms inspectors to return.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the one-day meeting "frank and useful" while Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said it was "positive and constructive." A new meeting with a "well-defined agenda agreed in advance" will be set for mid-April, a U.N. statement said.
Last February a meeting between Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Sahaf ended poorly with Annan the recipient of a long lecture. The secretary-general decided against a follow-up meeting at that time but on Thursday appeared comfortable with Sabri's style, diplomats said. The weapons inspectors, trying to assess if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, left the country on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing campaign in mid-December 1998 to force Baghdad into cooperating with the arms experts.
The talks were held amid heightened tensions since President Bush made Iraq the key element of his "axis of evil" reference in his State of the Union speech in January. He demanded Baghdad accept the inspectors or face the consequences.
"It was clear that the Iraqis did not come ready to comply with U.N. resolutions," a U.S. official said. "That is our only expectation from Iraq."
However, British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock said the continuation of the talks was a hopeful sign but that Iraq could be stalling for time because of the American threat. But he said it was too early to draw conclusions. "It's much too early to make a judgement about whether this is for real -- whether they are truly seeing what the route to full compliance will be or whether they are just trying to start a process because having a process gives them more protection than not having a process," Greenstock said.
But he said the fact that "there seems to be a willingness to come back in mid-April indicates Iraq wants the process to continue. That could be good news."
The inspectors have not been allowed to return since then and are the key to easing U.N. sanctions, imposed after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
A U.N. statement after the talks said the two sides focused on core issues such as "the return of the U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq" as well as missing Kuwaitis and Iraqis, stemming from Iraq's occupation of the emirate before the Gulf War. It said a "concrete way" would be found for Iraq to return some Kuwaiti property through the United Nations. Iraq raised a number of issues -- including lifting the sanctions, the unilateral no-fly zones established by the United States and Britain and eliminating weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East, the statement said. Iraq previously has referred to Israel's nuclear program.
Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector sat next to Annan in the talks. Sabri's delegation included Gen. Hussan Amin, the Iraqi government's chief liaison official with the U.N. inspectors, Saeed Hasan, a foreign ministry official, and Mohammed Aldouri, Baghdad's U.N. ambassador. Bureau Report
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the one-day meeting "frank and useful" while Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said it was "positive and constructive." A new meeting with a "well-defined agenda agreed in advance" will be set for mid-April, a U.N. statement said.
Last February a meeting between Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Sahaf ended poorly with Annan the recipient of a long lecture. The secretary-general decided against a follow-up meeting at that time but on Thursday appeared comfortable with Sabri's style, diplomats said. The weapons inspectors, trying to assess if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, left the country on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing campaign in mid-December 1998 to force Baghdad into cooperating with the arms experts.
The talks were held amid heightened tensions since President Bush made Iraq the key element of his "axis of evil" reference in his State of the Union speech in January. He demanded Baghdad accept the inspectors or face the consequences.
"It was clear that the Iraqis did not come ready to comply with U.N. resolutions," a U.S. official said. "That is our only expectation from Iraq."
However, British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock said the continuation of the talks was a hopeful sign but that Iraq could be stalling for time because of the American threat. But he said it was too early to draw conclusions. "It's much too early to make a judgement about whether this is for real -- whether they are truly seeing what the route to full compliance will be or whether they are just trying to start a process because having a process gives them more protection than not having a process," Greenstock said.
But he said the fact that "there seems to be a willingness to come back in mid-April indicates Iraq wants the process to continue. That could be good news."
The inspectors have not been allowed to return since then and are the key to easing U.N. sanctions, imposed after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
A U.N. statement after the talks said the two sides focused on core issues such as "the return of the U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq" as well as missing Kuwaitis and Iraqis, stemming from Iraq's occupation of the emirate before the Gulf War. It said a "concrete way" would be found for Iraq to return some Kuwaiti property through the United Nations. Iraq raised a number of issues -- including lifting the sanctions, the unilateral no-fly zones established by the United States and Britain and eliminating weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East, the statement said. Iraq previously has referred to Israel's nuclear program.
Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector sat next to Annan in the talks. Sabri's delegation included Gen. Hussan Amin, the Iraqi government's chief liaison official with the U.N. inspectors, Saeed Hasan, a foreign ministry official, and Mohammed Aldouri, Baghdad's U.N. ambassador. Bureau Report