BAGHDAD, September 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Saturday, September 14, that the United States backed by Britain was seeking to lay its hand on Iraq’s oil and redraw the map of the Middle East.

In a news conference held in Iraq to respond to U.S. President George W. Bush's speech to the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, September 12, Aziz said Iraq would consider a proposal by French President Jacques Chirac to set a three-week deadline for Baghdad to readmit U.N. arms inspectors provided Chirac guarantees that this would stop a U.S. attack.

Aziz said Baghdad was amenable to a solution of the standoff over arms inspectors that would both preserve Iraq’s sovereignty and legitimate rights and lead to the “truth” about its armament programs, as well as the lifting of economic sanctions in place since Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The Iraqi leadership was open to all suggestions leading to a solution, “but as far as I know, there are no formal proposals now, only statements” by Western and Arab leaders in favor of the return of inspectors who have been barred from Iraq since pulling out in December 1998.

Aziz charged that U.S.-British plans to attack Iraq had nothing to do with its alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, which he strongly denied, and everything to do with their quest to seize Iraqi oil and “redraw the map of the region.”

“The way Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair are conducting their campaign against Iraq is: doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t,” Aziz said.

Washington and London wanted to redraw the regional map “starting with Iraq to protect Israel, enable (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon to expel the Palestinians to Jordan and partition Saudi Arabia and control its oil,” he said.

The two allies were hatching “a new Sykes-Picot” for the region, Aziz added, referring to the 1916 British-French accord that carved up the Arab world between the two powers after the fall of the Ottoman empire.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said in remarks published by the Iraqi weekly Tikrit on Sunday, September 15 that the United States must reconsider its policies in the Arab world if it wants to safeguard its interests in the Middle East.

“The United States must rethink its policy if it wants to preserve its interests in the region, otherwise the Arab nation will reconsider its attitude toward (Washington’s) policy, which is hostile to the Arabs and aligned to Israel,” said Ramadan.

If the United States carries out its threats to attack Iraq, “it should know that 250 million Arabs will consider themselves targeted by the aggression, irrespective of the declared or undeclared position of this or that (Arab) ruler,” he said.

Ramadan reiterated Baghdad’s charge that the Bush’s administration wanted to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime “because of its nationalist positions, chiefly its support for the just Palestinian cause,” not because of its alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

Bush said Saturday that the United Nations must show “backbone” in disarming Iraq or Washington would “deal with the problem,” two days after he warned in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that military action was “unavoidable” unless Baghdad disarmed.

In another development, Arab foreign ministers are urging Iraq to accept the return of U.N. weapons inspectors in order to avoid a military strike.

“We want Iraq to implement the Security Council resolutions which will end the current crisis” over U.S. threats to launch a war against Baghdad over its failure to admit inspectors, said Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud.

Hammud, speaking on behalf of Arab foreign ministers who met Saturday with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York, said “the return of inspectors is the first step” to avert a showdown, Ash-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

Hammud, whose country currently holds the rotating Arab League presidency, said that Annan urged the Arab ministers to help ensure inspectors return to Iraq, according to the Arabic-language daily based in London.

The ministers, who have been meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, are in the meantime awaiting the results of Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri’s consultations with Baghdad, Hammud added.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher also told journalists “if the Iraqi leadership accepts (to admit inspectors), it would be logical to move rapidly to avoid any new decision from the Security Council.”

He did not allude to what that decision might be, but the Security Council can authorize the use of force to implement its resolutions.

“What we want is the return of inspectors, and we have appealed to Iraq to accept their return in order to achieve peace and security for the Iraqi people and its neighbors,” Maher was quoted as saying.

Maher said Cairo would have to give its reluctant support to military action against Iraq if it was endorsed by the United Nations.

Speaking to the Italian press in Washington on Saturday, September 14, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that Iraq will agree to U.N. demands for renewed weapons inspections rather than face U.S.-led military intervention.

Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein is a “pragmatic man”, Berlusconi said after talks with Bush at the Camp David presidential retreat outside the capital.

“Confronted with a particularly determined resolution by the United Nations, backed by the United States, he cannot but realize his total interest in accepting the rules that are laid down,” Berlusconi predicted in remarks carried by the Italian press.

“I am not an optimist,” he added. “My evaluation is based on the interests of Iraq and its dictator.”

If Saddam does not comply, however, the United Nations could give its approval for military intervention in Iraq, but not until early next year, the Italian prime minister said.

“If Iraq says no to the United Nations’ demands - which I don’t believe will happen - a U.N. reaction isn’t foreseeable before January, and could happen in January or February," he said.