UPI reported that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Saudi leaders on Monday discussed a new formula for Iraq that provides lifting the U.N.-imposed embargo and allowing the resumption of civil flights but on condition that Baghdad allows the return of the U.N. weapons inspectors, a U.S. diplomat said.
According to UPI in a dispatch from Cairo, Powell paid a four-hour visit to Riyadh where he met with Saudi King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdallah and Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
Al-Faisal said his country and the U.S. agreed on the "need to review the embargo imposed on Iraq and to find a way to eliminate the sufferings of the Iraqi people that will guarantee Iraq's commitment to complying with U.N. Security Council resolutions related to Kuwait and Iraq."
He said the U.S. and Saudi Arabia agreed on the "need of the international community to guarantee that what happened on August 2, 1990 (the invasion of Kuwait) will not be repeated and of abiding by all related Security Council resolutions."
A U.S. diplomatic source told United Press International that the talks mainly focused on the search for a new formula for dealing with Iraq.
"The return of the U.N. disarmament inspectors is a principal condition before implementing the new U.S. proposal," said the source who refused to be identified.
He said such a proposal was "an agreement between Washington and a number of international and regional capitals concerned with the situation in Iraq."
Earlier, in Kuwait, Powell said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was "weaker today than he used to be 10 years ago" when he invaded the oil-rich emirate.
He told the official Kuwaiti News Agency that Saddam's speeches "indicate great weakness" and called on the Kuwaitis "not to pay them any attention as Kuwait's allies and friends are capable of defending them at any time."
Asked whether the new U.S. administration would exert greater efforts concerning Kuwaiti prisoners taken during the 1990 invasion, Powell said, "We will do what we can but the issue remains very complicated and we say to the Kuwaiti people that it's a sad thing and we will do everything via international channels to convince the Baghdad regime of the need to release them."
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
