Iraq and the United Nations agreed to embark on a "comprehensive dialogue without preconditions" during talks in Doha Monday between a top Iraqi official and UN chief Kofi Annan, Iraq's foreign minister said.
The UN secretary general, meanwhile, added a note of caution to the Iraqi announcement of renewed contacts after an almost yearlong stalemate.
"We didn't agree to any mechanism as such. I have to review what we have discussed and we'll determine how we are going to proceed," he told reporters after the talks with President Saddam Hussein's No. 2 Ezzat Ibrahim.
"They have issues, I have (UN) Security Council resolutions but we are going to find ways of discussion," Annan said.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, who took part in the meeting on the sidelines of an Islamic summit in Doha, said that "both sides accepted ... to engage in a comprehensive dialogue without any preconditions."
Annan met Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq's ruling Revolutionary Command Council, for 40 minutes, renewing top-level contacts for the first time since efforts to ease decade-long UN sanctions on Baghdad ended in stalemate last December.
"Both sides will start to put their remarks, their suggestions, proposals (together) and then they (the two sides) will meet after preparing their proposals," the foreign minister said.
The dialogue would be with the Security Council, represented by Annan, said Sahhaf, adding that the venue would be decided at a later date.
He said the agreement was "a good start" to Iraq's efforts "to achieve a comprehensive and final solution to lift the embargo," which has been in force since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The final communiqué of the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called on the Security Council to launch a comprehensive dialogue with Iraq and asked Baghdad to implement UN resolutions stemming from the Gulf War.
Baghdad has rejected Security Council Resolution 1284 passed last December that offers a suspension of sanctions in return for Iraqi cooperation with a new disarmament regime.
Sahhaf renewed Iraq's criticism of the resolution earlier Monday, dismissing it as "a non-starter."
The meeting between Ibrahim and Annan "was arranged at Iraq's initiative. The Iraqis want to get things moving on a lifting of sanctions," a diplomatic source said.
"There is a feeling among its sympathizers in the UN Security Council, notably France and Russia, that this is good timing because of the US election process and a lame duck (President Bill) Clinton," he said.
Annan said Sunday in a speech to the 56-member OIC, at which Ibrahim was standing in for Saddam, that the only way forward was for Iraq to fall in line with UN resolutions.
He urged Baghdad "to review its position with a view to cooperating with the international community."
Iraq insists its banned weaponry was already dismantled during seven years of UN arms inspections up until the end of 1998 and that the resolution is a ploy by the United States and Britain to keep Baghdad within the sanctions straitjacket.
While refusing so far to even discuss Resolution 1284 with the United Nations, Iraq has focused its efforts on a campaign to chip away at sanctions by renewing ties with Arab states as well as air and trading links with the outside world.
With oil prices high and a ceiling on Iraqi oil exports lifted, Baghdad's revenues have shot up, allowing it to lure more commercial partners under the UN oil-for-food deal which authorizes the exports for the purchase of humanitarian goods – DOHA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
