JEDDAH/JOHANNESBURG, 4 September — The Gulf Cooperation Council countries yesterday rejected a US strike against Iraq but urged Baghdad to readmit UN weapons inspectors to ward off an attack. The GCC states “renew their adherence to the decision of (last March’s) Arab summit in Beirut which rejected any military action against any Muslim or Arab country, including Iraq,” said a statement issued by foreign ministers of the six-nation bloc at the end of a two-day meeting in Jeddah.
Such action would have “consequences that would endanger security and stability in the Gulf region,” said the statement by the chief diplomats of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “The (GCC ministerial) council urges Iraq to accept the return of UN inspectors in order to avert such (military) action,” the statement added, referring to US threats to attack Baghdad on grounds that it is pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq said yesterday it was ready to work with the United Nations to end its crisis with the United States provided US concerns about its weapons programs were genuine and not a pretext to attack. Speaking after talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz repeated an invitation to US politicians to visit Iraq to check for themselves whether it had weapons of mass destruction.
“If the question of so-called weapons of mass destruction is a genuine concern by the US, this matter could be dealt with reasonably and equitably, but if it is a pretext for (regime) change ... then they will use whatever pretext that remains in their hands to attack Iraq,” Aziz told reporters.
“We invited the Americans themselves, we invited the British to come. If they come for a special mission they are welcome because that is what we want them to do. But if they send people who will drag their feet for years without reaching a conclusion as they did for seven-and-a-half, that’s not going to work.”
Iraq’s invitation to US politicians with no technical expertise to make weapons checks has been ridiculed in the West as a ploy to avoid international monitoring of its armaments. Aziz’s remarks suggested he defined a “special mission” as the proposed visit by US politicians.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri also hinted in Cairo yesterday his government could readmit UN inspectors. Visiting Cairo for Arab League meetings, Sabri said a “return of inspectors is part of UN Security Council resolutions, and we call for the application of these resolutions.” Sabri was speaking after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. When asked about statements from US officials about Washington’s readiness to go to war, Sabri said, “The world refuses the law of the jungle adopted by these extremists and Zionists in the American administration. They are arms merchants, whose only mission is to export death, destruction and evil to other countries of the world.”
Denmark yesterday insisted the United Nations decide how to deal with Iraq and welcomed key Arab support for a new European initiative for Arab-Israeli peace. Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller of Denmark, representing the European Union, gave his remarks in Cairo.
