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Politics : Attack Iraq? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (1833)	9/30/2002 10:10:37 PM
From: lorne	Respond to of 8683

Iran cool on Iraq offer of final peace deal September 29 2002 President Saddam Hussein on Sunday offered a final peace deal with neighbouring Iran but his envoy to Tehran was told that Iraq would have to co-operate fully with UN weapons inspectors to avert war. Naji Sabri, Iraq's visiting foreign minister, told reporters he had delivered a message of reconciliation from Mr Hussein to President Mohammad Khatami. Mr Sabri said Iraq wanted to remove problems and end the state of "no war no peace" that has existed since the end of their 1980-88 conflict. Diplomats speculated that the Iraqi leader had offered to end his support for militant Iranian opposition groups based in Iraq, in exchange for Iran withdrawing its backing for Kurdish and Shia factions opposed to Baghdad. But Kamal Kharrazi, Iran's foreign minister who also met Mr Sabri in New York this month, appears to have rejected Iraq's request for Tehran's tacit support in Baghdad's confrontation with the US. He also showed that Iran hoped to exploit the vulnerability of its former enemy. "Now it is up to Iraq to prevent rising tension and crisis in the region through necessary co-operation with the UN," Mr Kharrazi told Mr Sabri. Mr Kharrazi added that Iran could offer "good neighbourly relations" if Iraq settled unresolved issues "as soon as possible". He referred to the continued detention of prisoners of war, as well as trade and pilgrimage to Shia Muslim shrines in Iraq. Iranian newspapers, from the left and right, attacked the visit of Mr Sabri, saying Iraq was a "loser" that could not be trusted. Beneath its own anti-war rhetoric, Iran is preparing to protect its national interests in the event of a US-led assault on Iraq, and for the moment is keeping its options and channels of communication open. Kuwait's defence minister, Sheikh Jaber al-Hamad al-Sabah, was also in Tehran on Sunday, while next week Jack Straw, UK foreign secretary, is expected to make his third visit to Iran within a year. An Iranian official said privately there had also been communication from the US through its interests section in the Swiss embassy in Tehran. He gave no details. Moderates within the Iranian establishment are broadly in favour of regime change in Baghdad, even if that should lead to installation of a pro-US government. However, hardliners take the "axis of evil" language of President George W. Bush more seriously. Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, has warned Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition groups not to co-operate with the US. Nonetheless, a Shia faction led by Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim said it had provided documents to the US on Iraq's chemical weapons plans. Diplomats said the information, passed on with a green light from Iran, was used in the dossier against Iraq presented by Tony Blair, UK prime minister, to parliament last week. worldtribune.com