IRAN WELCOMED IRAQI DECISION TO LET UN INSPECTORS BACK
TEHRAN, 17 Sept (IPS) Iran officially joined Tuesday a great number of countries, including France, in welcoming Iraq's "unconditional" acceptance to the return of United Nations weapons inspectors, but Iranian analysts doubted Baghdad’s dictator "sincerity" saying he has a record of last minute "volte-face".
"Iraq has made a wise and sensible decision by agreeing to the return of UN weapons inspectors, as it will strip the United States from excuses to attack Iraq and stop the drums of war", Mr. Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Iranian government official spokesman told journalists.
Most worlds’ nations, including the European Union and the Arab League welcomed the Iraqi decision, which was submitted in a letter to the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan late Monday evening.
Mr. Annan confirmed the offer and said the pledge was unconditional. "Inspectors would be allowed to continue their work and Iraq was ready to discuss the practical arrangements for the return of inspectors", he said.
Mr Annan paid "particular tribute" to all the states of the Arab League who played a "key role" in the Iraqi offer.
Mr Annan said he would pass the letter on to the Security Council "and they will have to decide what they do next".
He said the inspectors in the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, and their chairman Hans Blix were "ready to continue their work".
French Foreign Affairs Minister Dominique de Villepin called on the UN to "seize immediately" the Iraqis on their word by sending its inspectors back to work.
But the US quickly dismissed the offer as a "cynical ploy" and urged people to remember that Iraq had a long history of playing games. It also says it is a move that could be an attempt to split the Security Council and preclude stern U.S. action against Iraq.
Britain, Washington’s only unconditional ally for attacking Iraq, also expressed reserves on Iraq’s sudden decision, as it called on the UN to remove all international embargoes and urges the United States to official pledge for not attacking Iraq.
"The excuse has be taken away from the war-mongers", Mr. Ramazanzadeh said, reminding that Iran, that fought Iraq a devastating eight years war between 1980 and 1988, has always called on Iraq to abide by the United Nations resolutions.
"We hope the Iraqi government puts this into practice and the ground becomes prepared for the region to be calm again" the spokesman said.
Earlier, the embattled President Mohammad Khatami had criticised Washington for setting a dangerous precedent by threatening to attack another country without U.N. backing.
"Today it is the wrong policy of America which has created tension in the world. This is a dangerous tradition, that a powerful country attacks another country whenever it wishes to", he told the annual meeting of all Revolutionary Guards commanders.
"We have one goal, which is the fight against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction", the French Foreign Affairs Minister said, rejecting the U.S and UK’s efforts to depose the Iraqi President.
"There has been talk about working for regime change," de Villespin said. "This is not included in the mandate of the United Nations. If we begin discussing it, where will it end? It's a totally different process."
At Dubuque, Iowa, Bush pressed his case for deposing Saddam. Outside the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, he called the Iraqi a "tyrant [who] must be dealt with." About 100 demonstrators held signs that read, "Drop Bush Not Bombs" and "Please No War in Iraq."
"If Iraq's regime continues to defy us and the world, [the United States] will move deliberately yet decisively to hold Iraq to account", with or without the United Nations, Bush said.
Most Iranian analysts agreed with Washington and accused the European Union of "mercantilism".
They also said they doubt Iraq's sincerity in readmitting weapons inspectors and said a pro-Western government in Baghdad would be bad news for the Islamic Republic.
"The Iraqi regime would sabotage the efforts of United Nations' weapon inspectors. Saddam Hussein seeks to buy time and delay the U.S. assault," political analyst Morad Veysi told Reuters. "The war is inevitable".
Many ordinary Iranians, with memories still vivid of Iraqi Scud missiles raining down on their cities and streams of coffins returning from the front, voiced their support for a U.S. attack on Baghdad.
"How can I oppose an attack on a country which fought a bloody eight-year war with my country?" asked businessman Reza Asgari.
"This is not a matter of inspection. It is about disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi regime's compliance with all other Security Council resolutions", a White House said in a written statement that called the offer "a tactical step by Iraq in hopes of avoiding strong U.N. Security Council action."
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein waited just four days to notify U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that he will allow unfettered inspections.
The US received a major boost on Monday when Saudi Arabia said it would allow the US to use its bases there for a strike on Iraq, providing the UN endorses the action.
"If the United Nations approved of military action (against Iraq), everybody is obliged to follow", the Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud al Faysal said, indicating a mjor shift in the Kingdom’s earlier position.
UN inspectors left Iraq four years ago after complaining of obstruction from the Iraqi authorities.
Since then, Iraq has refused to allow inspectors to return, leading to the current crisis.
Iraq's letter, after four years of stalemate, came days after US President George W Bush addressed the UN General Assembly and said that Iraq must comply with Security Council resolutions, or face the consequences. ENDS IRAQ WEAPONS INSPECTION 17902