Talks scheduled later this month between Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan have been postponed at Baghdad's request, Annan's spokesman said Friday.
Iraq sought the delay because it did not want to distract attention from the crisis in the Middle East, Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
The talks had been scheduled for April 18-19 in New York City. No new date for the discussions was set immediately, APreported.
Annan and Sabri met March 7, their first high-level talks in a year. The secretary-general has said he hoped the new talks would focus on the return of U.N. arms inspectors to Iraq.
Baghdad is under sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and they cannot be lifted until inspectors certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been eliminated along with the long-range missiles to deliver them.
(Albawaba.com)
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