Message from Saddam to Khatami, Kuwaiti defense minister in Tehran

Tehran on Sunday hosted the Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri and Kuwait's Jaber al-Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah, deputy prime minister and minister of defense, who stressed the "impossibility" of meeting with any "representative for the Iraqi regime," one the one hand, and that Kuwait does not play a broker role between Washington and Tehran, on the other.

Meantime, Iran seemed to have determined to "settle" the suspending bilateral filed between it and Iraq before talking about its position concerning the American threats of its neighbor, stressing Baghdad's responsibility to avoid the region an American war.

Sabri "told," as officially announced in Tehran, the Iranian officials his country's position concerning the American threats and "means" of solving the issues with the UN Security Council. He warned that the American onslaught does not only target Iraq alone, but also "the Islamic nation as a whole." In conclusion of his talks with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi and with the Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, the Iranian position stayed the same. Kharazi stressed his country's rejection to any American unilateral act but he stressed that it is "the responsibility of Iraq now is to avoid a conflict in the region in collaboration with the UN." Sabri conveyed to the Iranian president a message from President Saddam Hussein of two main themes: on bilateral relations and the possibility of a war eruption. However the Iranians concentrated on the first part, ( bilateral relations ).

Kharazi talked about the standing differences between the two sides since the Iranian- Iraqi war. He said that Iran "desires that Iraq will exert serious efforts to settle the pending issues and implement UN resolution 598" which calls for ending the conflict, stressing that "the political will of the Iranian leaders to develop good neighborly relations" with Iraq.

Sabri's visit to Tehran coincided with the visit of the Kuwaiti defense minister where he had arrived on Sunday, but the Kuwaiti ministry of defense said that the meeting between the two is "impossible."

Before he had left for Iran and then to Russia, the Kuwaiti minister said that the US will reduce its increasing military existence in his country after the end of the maneuvers to be held in October.