Near Breakthrough In Iraq Crisis
UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, trying to avert conflict over UN arms inspections, held a three-hour meeting with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday and felt a deal was within reach, Annans spokesman said.
He (Annan) feels he is on the verge of a breakthrough, Fred Eckhard told reporters outside a state guest house where the UN chief has been staying since Friday.
He said Annan would hold further talks with deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz to agree on a draft document to be signed by both sides. Substantial progress was made today. We feel a deal is within reach, Eckhard said. The secretary general certainly hopes he can reach an agreement tonight or tomorrow morning.
The Iraqi News Agency said Saddam had held a meeting with Annan that had lasted two hours. An authorised spokesman said after the meeting that it had been positive, the agency reported, without elaboration.
The UN chief returned to his state guest house nearly four hours after leaving the Foreign Ministry in a convoy of Iraqi government cars just before noon (0900 GMT) to see Saddam at the presidents Republican Palace in Baghdad. Annan, half-smiling, did not speak to reporters as he entered the guest house by a side entrance. Eckhard would not identify the main issue which UN officials said had remained unresolved before Annans meeting with Saddam and refused to say if it had now been agreed.
Sources close to the talks said the stumbling block was Iraqs insistence on a time limit to any UN inspections of eight so-called presidential sites for prohibited weapons.
Asked if the United States would accept the proposed deal, Eckhard said: The Secretary General is authorised to enter into an agreement with any member state...
He has carefully tried to build Security Council support for the parameters within which he feels he has stayed in his talks with the Iraqi authorities these last couple of days. He expects that what emerges from these talks he will be able to sell to the Security Council, Eckhard said.
Iraqi officials have made few comments about the details of Annans mission to Baghdad, but a leading parliamentarian told reporters yesterday that he was optimistic. I think the chance to reach a peaceful solution is more than any other time, said Saad Qasim Hammoudi, chairman of the Arab and international committee of the National Assembly.
Maybe in the future the National Assembly (will) discuss and support this peaceful solution, he said, in English.
Details of any deal, if agreed with Saddam, would not be made public by the United Nations until Annan had presented it to the Security Council, a UN official said. The UN source said Annan would leave Baghdad today afternoon for Paris and reach New York on Tuesday morning to brief the Security Council on the outcome of his peace mission.
Iraq has previously said it supports a Russian proposal under which UN weapons teams could inspect the presidential sites over a 60-day period, provided they are accompanied by diplomats representing Security Council members.
The United States and Britain have threatened to use force to compel Iraq to allow unfettered inspections of the sites by the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM), charged with dismantling Baghdads prohibited weapons, without any time limits. Eckhard said Annan had been in touch during his stay in Baghdad with leaders of the five permanent Security Council members.
Annan has had very little room for manoeuvre in his talks with Iraqi leaders, knowing that any deal must enshrine the principles of full Iraqi compliance with UN Security Council resolutions and no dilution of UNSCOMs role.
The United States has made clear it will not accept anything short of that and White House National Security Council adviser Samuel Berger said on Saturday that the U.S. military was continuing to get ready for action.