On the same day that Kuwait marked the 10th anniversary of liberation from Iraqi forces, U.N. and Iraqi officials began talks to break a two-year gridlock on disarmament and humanitarian issues.
However, both sides on February 26th downplayed any expectations of significant progress being made during the two-day talks led by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.
Annan said he did not expect miracles from the talks on breaking the impasse on sanctions and arms inspections, but he said that he thought there had been movement in the capitals of U.N. Security Council members on what to do next to end the deadlock.
Annan said there was “quite a bit of reflection”' in the capitals regarding a new approach to dealing with the 10-year-old sanctions. He said he hoped the two days of talks were a prelude to further discussions.
Al-Sahaf, however, reiterated Baghdad’s position that Iraq had fulfilled all requirements of council resolutions for ending the U.N. trade and economic embargoes and he said that Iraq would explain in detail how the Gulf country had achieved this.
“Now it is the role of the Security Council to implement its mutual obligations toward Iraq -- that means an immediate lift of sanctions imposed on Iraq,” al-Sahaf said.
Disarmament issues were on the agenda for morning of February 26th with humanitarian concerns to be addressed in the afternoon. Unfinished business will be taken up on February 27th.
Iraq said earlier on February 26th that it saw the al-Sahaf-Annan talks as fruitless. “Iraq does not pin any hope on this dialogue which is conducted with a party [the U.N.] that has no authority to take decisions,” said an editorial in al-Thawra, the ruling Ba'ath Party's newspaper.
“Iraq is keen to take part in any dialogue in which it would table the injustices inflicted upon it and defend its national rights at international arenas,” the editorial said.
But it added that Washington and London were waiting for the failure of the dialogue to use it as a “pretext to take new steps that have already been cooked by them.”
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
