Iraq said today it was ready to work with the United Nations on an overall solution to its crisis with the United States provided US concerns about its weapons programmes were genuine and not a pretext to attack.
|
Speaking after talks with UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan at the Earth Summit, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Mr Tareq Aziz repeated an invitation to US politicians to visit Iraq to check for themselves whether it had weapons of mass destruction.
"Let them tell us and the world that their concerns are genuine and that they are not using them as a pretext to attack Iraq - if those concerns are genuine we can find a solution to that," Mr 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 years, 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.
Washington accuses Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of seeking weapons of mass destruction and US President Mr George W. Bush has called for "regime change" in Baghdad but has insisted no decision has been made on military action.
White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer last night dismissed the comments by Mr Aziz saying Iraq changed its position on allowing inspectors back frequently and that Iraqi officials "don't have a history of reliability". Mr Aziz said a comprehensive solution would involve tackling what he called US threats to Iraq, US and British air patrols over the north and south of Iraq, the lifting of sanctions and US threats to change Iraq's political system.
"As I told the (UN) Secretary General, if anybody can have a magic solution, so that all these issues are being dealt with together, equitably and reasonably, we are ready to find such a solution and we are ready to cooperate with the United Nations," Mr Aziz said, adding the two men promisted to stay in touch.
Mr Annan said in a statement the meeting was part of continuing talks between Baghdad and the United Nations on the inspectors, who left Baghdad in 1998 after seven years of monitoring.
"This meeting was part of the ongoing dialogue between UN and Iraqi authorities aimed at agreeing in the return of inspectors to Iraq, which in turn will lead to a comprehensive solution including the lifting of sanctions," he said.