IRAQ SERIOUS ON HAVING GOOD RELATIONS WITH IRAN
By Safa Haeri, IPS Editor
PARIS 9 Oct. (IPS) Mr. Abdolrazzaq Hashemi, a high-ranking Iraqi diplomat said Wednesday Baghdad is "very serious" on normalising its relations with neighbouring Iran and at the same time disclosed that Iraq had sent weapons to Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani fighting the Ansar al Eslam terrorists who had established bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Speaking at a packed press conference at the Paris International Press Club (CAPE), Mr. Hashemi, a former ambassador to France, said having good relations with Iran not only helping the mutual interest to both neighbours, but is very important for Iraqi interests. "This is our basic policy", he assured.Answering questions from Iran Press Service, Mr. Hashemi said during his recent visit to Tehran, the Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Naji Sabri tried to solve outstanding problems between the two countries, "including the question of Iraqi planes and the POWs", but he refused to enter into details, saying any problem could be solved with negotiations.
Iraq says it sent some 200 planes, both military and civilians to Iran to save them from allied attacks during the 1991 war, but Iran insist that it "received" only a few dozen, most of them destroyed on crush-landing.
Asked to comment on Iranian press reporting that Mr. Sabri returned empty hands from Tehran, Mr. Hashemi said the Minister’s talks with Iranian official were "positive and fruitful", but again, he did not emphasise.
As a proof of Iraq also fighting Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, Mr. Hashemi surprised journalists by revealing that on request from the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan to fight the "terrorist" group of Ansar al Eslam, Baghdad had responded positively by sending adequate weapons to Mr. Talabani.
Though he said forcefully that the 150-200 members the group is supposed to have were not Iraqis, but he refused to say where they had come from.
Earlier reports said the Ansar has Iranian background and is linked to al-Qa’eda network.
Touching on the main subject of his press conference, Mr. Hashemi said Iraq would not accept any new resolution on the question of Iraqi arms of mass destruction and accused the United States of carrying out plans aimed at destroying Iraq and take over its oil.
"Oil is the problem, as the Persian Gulf, including Iraq, is the only region capable of securing world’s need for energy in the coming 50 years", he added.
"We will not give them this pleasure and would deal them a defeat by defending our homeland", the former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Researches assured.
He reiterated that Iraq was ready to receive UN arms inspector to return and start work without the slightest conditions, including checking presidential palaces.
"The Americans want us to admit to possessing something that did not exist and that is the so-called arms of mass destruction. The Americans say all of our weapons of mass destruction must be destroyed before the return of the UN arms inspectors, but we say we don’t have any of these arms or if you insist, let the inspectors do their job of finding them" the veteran Iraqi diplomat pointed out.
He said President George W. Bush’s latest speech on Tuesday was "full of unfounded allegations, flat lies and generalities".
"Mind you that a power that can wipe Iraq from the map of the world with its arms in few hours is complaining that we endanger its security, peace and stability! Who is to believe such nonsense? Hashemi asked, adding that the new resolution the United States and Britain are after at the UN Security Council are "tantamount of outright occupation and we cannot accept that".
"Bush, in one of his speeches, said: "maybe (he) is completely certain that" … I’m asking him: who wrote these nonsense for you? What means maybe completely certain? Hashemi said in an effort to show that American allegations against Iraq’ danger for world’s peace are no better than these semantic.
He brushed aside as "utterly unimportant and insignificant" the present session of the Iraqi Kurds regional parliament as well as the American-British-supported Iraqi opposition, which he described as a "bunch of people with no link to the Iraqi people".
On a European tour to explain the Iraqi position, Mr. Hashemi had meetings here in Paris with leading French businessmen, mostly in the oil sector, as well as with some lawmakers and other officials.
He said he did not expect anything from the European Union as not only the community is divided, but also it lacks a coherent and united foreign policy.
"There is nothing Europe could do for us but keep business going, as we are good business partners", he noted. ENDS HASHEMI 91002