IRAQ-UN: Annan Increasingly Involved in Iraqi Crisis.

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 9 1998 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the man in the middle of the standoff between the United States and Iraq, faces increasing pressure from some countries to be more involved in mediation efforts while U.S. officials are saying the time for diplomacy is waning.

The conflicting pressures on Annan came to a head Monday when the secretary-general cancelled a trip to five Middle Eastern nations and Italy, slated to begin on Wednesday. But even as he made that announcement, Russia – among other nations present on the 15-member Security Council – called for the U.N. chief to visit Baghdad to help resolve the standoff.

For now, however, Annan plans to stay put in New York, amid efforts by Russia, Turkey and several Arab nations to broker a compromise in the ongoing dispute between Iraq and U.N. weapons inspectors and a build-up of U.S. troop presence in the Persian Gulf.

“I think the discussions, and the search for a diplomatic solution, have reached a critical stage, and my presence is needed here,” Annan told reporters. “I have no plans at the moment to go to Baghdad.”

Nevertheless, with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warning that air strikes on Iraq could be only weeks away, other countries have pushed for direct involvement by Annan. The Costa Rican government formally requested Annan’s mediation in a letter last Friday, U.N. officials confirmed, while Russian President Boris Yeltsin has also lobbied for the secretary-general to visit Baghdad.

Such a trip is still possible if the Security Council deems it helpful, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. “If the Council asks (Annan) to go, and if he feels he can accomplish something by going, then certainly he will go,” he added.

Until then, however, “it is essential for him to remain available at (U.N.) headquarters until the crisis has been defused,” Eckhard said. As a result, Annan has postponed his planned trip this week to Italy, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon until later in the year.

The question remains whether Annan can do anything to avert the military escalation in the Gulf. Officials here say it is uncertain whether Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would agree to meet Annan and it is doubtful that the U.N. chief could accomplish anything by travelling to Baghdad without such a meeting.

Last week, Annan said he had tried once to contact Hussein directly by telephone, but was unable to reach him. The secretary- general has consistently refused to recognise recent Iraqi offers to open up eight presidential complexes to U.N. weapons inspectors as a solution to the “full, free and unfettered access” the United Nations is demanding.

Iraq over the weekend stepped up its diplomatic efforts, and offered a plan by which a combination of technical experts and diplomats from the main Security Council member states would be allowed limited access to the presidential sites. U.S. Ambassador Bill Richardson Sunday rejected the Iraqi proposals as insufficient.

Arab nations pushing for a compromise are considering bringing a draft resolution, which would urge a negotiated solution to the crisis, to the Security Council this week. Meanwhile, the United States is gathering support for its own efforts to find Iraq “in material breach” of Council resolutions which established a cease- fire between Iraq and Kuwait in 1991 – language which could justify a new U.S. attack.

None of the resolutions, however, is expected to fare well in the divided Security Council. Russia and China, both of whom have veto powers, remain opposed to the use of military force in the Gulf. Two other veto-holding members – Britain and the United States – are likely to reject any compromise that falls short of full Iraqi acceptance of the weapons inspectors’ mandate.

Still, U.S. officials insist they already have the legal authority, based on the 1991 cease-fire resolution, to attack Iraq anew if Baghdad is deemed to be concealing evidence of the manufacture of biological and chemical weapons from the United Nations.

Iraq has in fact been attacked several times by the United States since the Gulf War, having faced air strikes in 1993 – following unproven allegations of an assassination plot against former President George Bush – and 1995, after Hussein sent troops into parts of the northern semi-autonomous, but feuding, Kurdish region.

The best hope the United Nations may have in playing a greater role in the conflict is that Washington is not finding it easy to deploy its troops in the Middle East for the current standoff. U.S. officials decided not to use Saudi Arabia as a base for air strikes when it became clear that the request would embarrass the Saudi monarchy, while only Britain and Australia have so far offered military support for a possible attack.

As a result, Annan may find a better atmosphere for a diplomatic solution than one predecessor, Javier Perez de Cuellar, encountered after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Perez de Cuellar visited Baghdad and met Hussein, but failed to win an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.

Soon after diplomacy had failed, a US-led military coalition from 13 countries went to war with Iraq.