Iraq unfazed, Arab strategic rift with US exposed
Iraq, International, 11/11/1997

Iraq has continued its position of not allowing UN inspection teams with US members, and promised that it will shoot down US piloted and owned U-2 planes. The US has said the U-2 flights will stop after making a brief one-time flight on Monday, which Iraq did not fire on.

In a major shift of emphasis in the Iraqi-US showdown, the US has backed off of its earlier rhetoric and seems to be adopting less hawkish statements against Iraq.

The secretary of defense said: "There will be a very serious act and a big mistake" if Iraq fires at the U-2 surveillance planes, but when pressed to answer if that would constitute "an act of war" against the US, the secretary backtracked from earlier defense department statements and insisted in a PBS Newshour interview that it would be "an act of aggression" since they would be killing an innocent pilot who is unarmed.

President Clinton said that the US is seeking a diplomatic solution to the problem while the State Department said that the focus of attention has shifted to the Security Council and that the US is looking for the Security Council to take action and to "ratchet the pressure" against Iraq by having the UN restrict the Iraqi officials' movements, an attempt that the US failed at earlier when a US-sponsored resolution adopted was weakened and made ineffective.

The state department said Secretary Albright has been working the phone and was in touch with Russia and France, the two countries that abstained from the previous security council vote against Iraq, to get the necessary support. James Rubin, the State Department spokesman, said that they are hopeful that they will get the needed support.

Even if the US succeeds in winning further restrictions against Iraq, this softening of position is being seen as a result of the lacklaster support the US position is having in the Arab world, and the concern of further weakening support for maintaining anti-Iraq sanctions since many of the old enemies of Iraq and Gulf War coalition members have had a change of policy. Syria has opened borders and has been improving relations with Iraq at a rapid pace, and others such as United Arab Emirates have been calling for reconciliation with Iraq.

Tariq Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister for Iraq, who is in New York for talks with the UN Security Council stated unequivocally that "Iraq will not back away from its position" and if those in the security council think that they can scare Iraq, "They cannot scare us because the Iraqis cannot suffer any more then the situation they are in." Aziz repeated that Iraq will not allow these "spy planes" to fly over Iraq as they belong to a country that uses these planes to do preparatory work for US strikes against the country. He cited that on three occasions--in Jan 93, June 93, September 96--U-2 flights over Iraq preceded those strikes. He said that the flights had flown over the Area of "Arbil," an area that has nothing to do with the UN inspection mission. This "material evidence," said Aziz, will be provided to the UN security council which as of today has not met with him. Though Aziz did meet with some of the individual security council members separately.

Aziz cited that most of the UN inspection team is composed of Americans (44% last year and 32% this year) , and more importantly, the lead positions on all the UN teams are dominated by Americans who in many instances are previous US military officials. Aziz said that every crisis by the inspection team has been precipitated by those Americans. Aziz went on to describe the US as the "adversary that is also the judge." Asked if Iraq was concerned about the cut-off of the food for oil deal, Aziz described the deal as a "farce," as the US is preventing the distribution of the funds in a timely manner to Iraq, and said that such actions would not affect Iraq. Aziz said that the sanctions are preventing the use of car tires and ambulances since they are being classified as dual use products with potential military use.

There is hope of a possible compromise in the sense of using "less" Americans on the UN team to "balance" it, but that goes against Iraq's stated position that there needs to set a time limit on the sanctions. This last point has been emphasized by Iraq since Iraq views these sanctions as an excuse by the US to have an indefinite sanction against Iraq that will never be lifted and constantly ratcheted up to achieve US strategic geopolitical interests.

The US has failed to get practical Arab support in its actions despite lack of Arab support for Iraqi leadership. Many Arabs are coming to the view that this situation does not serve Arab interests, and that the US interests are counter to Arab interests in the region. Sheik Zayed, president of the UAE , has called for reconciliation with Iraq at a time when many Arab leaders would have not come forward with such statements. The US has been rebuffed by Saudi Arabia about attending MENA (the Middle East and North African economic summit), and Saudi Arabia was not pleased by the strong-arm tactics the US has employed in efforts to try to force Saudi Arabia along with Egypt to attend MENA.

An Arab official from the Gulf said, while requesting anonymity, "The US seems to love strong actions and sanctions against any and all Arab countries be it Libya, Iraq, Sudan, but will always find a reason to absolve Israel of any condemnations and sanctions no matter what Israel does, and no matter what UN resolutions it breaks." The official continued by saying that, "It is becoming increasingly clear that US interests in the Gulf are not those of the Arabs and a weak Iraq is not a good idea to us (Gulf countries) when we consider the Iranian military and economic developments. They (the US) want to be the protectorate and only dominant force sitting on top of the oil fields, and a weak Iraq facing Turkey and Iran and not balancing Iran will force the Gulf countries into the US waiting hands."

Previous Stories:
  U-2 flies in Iraq   (11/10/1997)
  Iraq defiant as confrontation day nears. US warns of war   (11/8/1997)
  Sheikh Zayed urges Arab reconcilation   (11/6/1997)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search