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UN Arms Experts May Return To Iraq Under Set Terms: Ramadan

Taha Yassin Ramadan

DUBAI, March 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq may allow UN arms inspectors back into the country if the United Nations draws up a list of sites and a timetable for inspections, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said in comments published Monday.

"Iraq refuses the return of inspectors for as long as the sites for inspection and a precise timetable are not drawn up," he told the London based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Baghad's refusal to submit to arms inspections, since weapons monitors fled the country ahead of punitive air strikes on Iraq in December 1998, has led Washington to threaten further military action to overthrow President Saddam Hussein, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Ramadan branded the inspectors "spies" whose return "is designed to bring to light information on Iraq so that the next American strike is more painful than previous ones.

Iraq "is totally free from weapons of mass destruction," Ramadan said, suggesting an Arab inspection team could visit any site, including presidential palaces.

Ramadan told the Saudi-owned Arabic daily the Middle East mission by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni "is intended to calm the situation on the Palestinian front so the United States can carry out their plans for Iraq."

"The continuation of the Palestinian intifada (uprising) has delayed an American strike against Iraq," he said.

The Iraqi vice president criticized the Middle East tour of his American counterpart Dick Cheney, alleging the U.S. vice president was "trying to win support for a strike, the overthrow of the Iraqi regime and the failure of the Arab summit," in Beirut on March 27-28.

Ramadan reiterated Iraq's offer to receive a Kuwaiti delegation to settle the issue of people missing or taken prisoner during the 1991 Gulf War and still unaccounted for.

Asked if a dialogue could be started between Iraq and the United States, he said Baghdad "can talk to every country in the world, except Israel."

"But we will not run after the United States, we do not trust them because they are a traditional enemy for us."

He condemned the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act passed during Bill Clinton's presidency, which provides backing for Iraqi opposition movements, and said Washington "considers Iraq as one of the American states."

Ramadan denied that Afghan opposition figure Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who heads the Hezb-i-Islami (Islamic Party), had been given refuge in Iraq after leaving Iran.

"He is not in our country and we will never agree to have him."

In another development, the Russian news online PRAVDA said that as the rhetoric increases from the U.S. administration, orders for military aircraft fuel increase.

Despite the claims by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the U.S. Vice-President Richard Cheney that there are no plans under way for an assault on Iraq, the signs are that such is being planned behind the scenes.

U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice declared recently that the Iraqi regime poses not only a threat to its neighbours and to its people, but also to peace and stability in the world. These, after the “axis of evil” speech by President Bush, are strong words, particularly in the context of current world politics, in which substantiated suspicion is deemed to be a free pass for military action.

The orders for aircraft fuel by the US authorities in March/April have increased considerably, pointing towards a storage process in preparation for a strike. While 150,000 barrels each are to be delivered to the bases at Jacobabad in Pakistan and Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan, for the operations currently taking place, 1.2 million barrels are ordered for the base in the United Arab Emirates, Star Jebel.

Confirming the Iraqi vice president's words, the PRAVDA said that the journey undertaken by Richard Cheney around the Middle East, ostensibly to discuss the question of Palestine, is said to be an attempt by Washington to prepare a coalition for attack similar to the one, which saw 32 armies fight against the Iraqi administration in the Gulf War in 1991.

However, such an idea, if posed, is likely to fall on deaf ears this time. On meeting Mr. Cheney, King Abdullah II of Jordan declared that he rejects “any use of force against Iraq”, while public opinion in Saudi Arabia is strongly against any military action against its northern neighbor and other Arab nations consider the Palestinian question to be of more immediate importance.

Antoine Basbous, director of the Observatory of Arab Countries in France, declared in an interview quoted by AFP, “Cheney is preparing the attack against Iraq, while Zinni tries to defuse the crisis in the Middle East”.

The notion that the U.S. administration has decided to topple the Ba’ath regime of Saddam Hussein sends political ripples through the world of international diplomacy. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reiterated Moscow’s hostility to such an attack on Tuesday, claiming that “Russia strongly favors a political solution to the Iraqi situation, based on the U.N. Security Council resolutions and in agreement with international law”.

The European Union is preparing to send an envoy to Baghdad to convince Saddam Hussein to allow the weapons inspectors back into Iraq; an action which would take away any grounds for a military strike. The British Ambassador at the U.N., Sir Jeremy Greenstock, questions “whether Iraq poses such a serious threat and whether there are no alternatives to military action, something which has not yet been considered”.

Iran, meanwhile, threatens that if the U.S. attacks Iraq, “they will be drawn into a swamp, which will be worse than Vietnam”, as Ayatollah Ali Mechkini, President of the Assembly of Wise Men, stated.

In an exclusive interview with IslamOnline, the Egyptian military analyst Mohammed Abdel Salam, said that he doesn't believe that the U.S. will attack Iraq in the near future.

He said that the U.S. administration did not take the decision of attacking Iraq but it took the decision of toppling the Iraqi regime and there is a big difference between the two options.

Abdel Salam added that the most likely scenario for striking Iraq, which is carrying out a ground invasion with an estimated U.S. military force of 50-150 thousand soldiers, in addition to cooperation with the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, the Kurds and Sunni elements within Iraq. This scenario, however, is problematic.

First, within the U.S. military itself, there are different opinions concerning how many troops will be needed. The suggestions rang between 150 thousand to 250 thousand soldiers.

Second, the Kurds are wary of cooperating with the U.S. fearing that the Iraqi regime will not be toppled.

Third, the neighboring countries that do not oppose toppling the Iraqi regime fear the U.S. would fail in toppling the regime.

Fourth, Turkey, one of many neighboring countries that would not support the Kurds with military aid, fears the Kurds would fight for separate state.

Fifth, there is no clear evidence that the Sunni elements support toppling the Iraqi regime.

Finally, there is no historical precedent in the Arab world of toppling any regime using military force.

Asked about the Arab stance in the case of a U.S. attack on Iraq, Abdel Salam said that Arab world will denounce the attack but will not take any move to stop it.

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