IRANIAN NEWSPAPERS COLD SHOULDERED NAJI SABRI’S VISIST
TEHRAN 29 Sept. (IPS) Iranian Sunday newspapers largely downplayed the visit
of Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Naji Sabri and in rare commentaries, warned
the authorities not to be "fooled" by promises and assurances the
Baghdad dictator would give them.
Mr. Sabri arrived Saturday in Tehran for a two-days official visit aimed at seeking Iranian support in case the United States and Britain attack Iraq. The Iranian embattled and powerless President Mohammad Khatami warmly received Mr. Sabri on Sunday.
The question whether to help Iraq or not is the subject of a heated debate between the ruling conservatives, who advocate neutrality, and the reformists, who proposes siding with Washington’s efforts to topple the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hoseyn.
A great majority of Iranians are angry at the visit, which coincides with the commemoration of the Iraqi sudden and undeclared attack on Iran on September 1980, a war that lasted eight years and cost Iran half a million dead, three millions wounded and disabled, thousands of towns and villages destroyed and billions of US Dollars in damages.
"Saddam is a threat for a durable peace in the region. Iran would not shed any tears if Saddam were gone. It will be the happiest day for all Iranians to see Saddam toppled, no matter by who. Tehran may even decide to cooperate with the U.S. if it receives assurances that its interests would be respected", Mr. Ja’far Golbaz, a member of the Majles National Security and Foreign Affaires told Mr. Ali Akbar Dareini of the American news agency Associated Press (AP).
Only the pro-reform "Hamshahri" and the pro-conservative "Entekhab" published in their first pages pictures from Mr. Naji’s arrival at Tehran Mehrabad airport, while others either ignored the event or published excerpts from dispatches by the official news agency IRNA in their inside pages.
Quoting Arab diplomatic sources, Entekhab said in order to avoid any misunderstanding, Tehran might inform Washington about the outcome of Mr. Sabri’s visit here.
Mr. Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary is scheduled to visit Tehran next month. Iranian newspapers and analysts see him as the international co-ordinator for President Bush’s war effort against Iraq and say he might be carrying a message from the American President for the Iranians.
Both Hamshahri and Entekhab, in their commentaries on Mr. Sabri’s visit, warned the Iranian side not to be lured by whatever promises the Iraqi top diplomat might offer.
"Now that both regional and international developments are moving against Iraq, it is not time for Iran to tie its destiny with a country that has never been a good and trusted neighbour for Tehran", said Entekhab (Choice), the only moderate newspaper that is close to the conservatives.
Noting that it is always in times of crisis that Baghdad tries to project itself as a friendly neighbour to Iran, the paper, in a veiled criticism of the leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, who has the last word on Iran’s foreign policy, regrets that, Iraq has "always succeeded with little concessions".
In a similar remark, the mass-circulation Hamshahri, which is published by Tehran municipality, warns the Iranian officials not to be "misled cheated" by the Iraqi counterparts.
"Iranian negotiators must be aware that some of the things they would put on the negotiations table (with the Iraqis) are not subject to any bargain. Iran’s national security is a good that could not be sold at any price", the newspaper added in its commentary, that visibly expresses the fear of many Iranian experts about the low capacity of Iranian diplomats. ENDS SABRI TEHRAN VISIT 29902