Iraq Hopes To Rally Arab World
Iraq has launched a diplomatic drive to rally Arab opposition to possible U.S. military action.
President Saddam Hussein dispatched senior Iraqi officials to almost all Arab capitals except Riyadh and Kuwait, Iraq's 1991 Gulf War foes, to make a case for rejecting any U.S. strike.
The Iraqi News Agency INA said on Monday that Saddam had sent Iraq's Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan to Yemen and Sudan to "organize a united Arab stance against the threat of U.S. aggression against Iraq."
Ramadan told reporters late on Sunday that the envoys would also discuss the 18-month Palestinian uprising with Arab states, whose leaders meet in the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 27 for an Arab League summit.
Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz started a tour of four North African countries on Saturday. He met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and other government officials on Sunday before flying to Tunisia where he is due to meet Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. He will also visit Algeria and Morocco.
Iraq's vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Izzat Ibrahim, toured Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt last week before heading to Gulf Arab states. Ibrahim met United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan on Sunday before flying to Bahrain. He is also due to visit Qatar.
Baghdad has been seeking to rally Arab support since President Bush labelled Iraq part of an "axis of evil," fueling speculation Washington planned to attack Iraq.
The Iraqi diplomatic offensive coincides with an 11-nation Middle East tour by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney designed to muster support for the war against terrorism, and promote the campaign to stop Saddam developing weapons of mass destruction.
Washington says Iraq should allow U.N. arms experts to return or face severe consequences. But Washington's main allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, oppose military action against Iraq.
Weapons inspectors left Iraq on the eve of a brief U.S.-British bombing campaign in December 1998. The inspectors, who must certify Iraq free of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons before U.N. sanctions can be lifted, have not been allowed back.
Ramadan was quoted on Monday as saying Baghdad would agree only to a conditional resumption of U.N. weapons inspections.
"Iraq rejects the return of international (arms) inspectors unless the locations to be searched are identified and a timetable is set up and respected," the London-based Saudi newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat quoted Ramadan as saying.