Arab foreign ministers try to persuade Iraq to accept U.N. resolution

Arab foreign ministers try to persuade Iraq to accept U.N. resolution SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Iraq accused the United States on Saturday

Friday, November 8th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Arab foreign ministers try to persuade Iraq to accept U.N. resolution

SARAH EL DEEB

Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Iraq accused the United States on Saturday of blackmailing the United Nations to adopt a ``bad and unjust'' resolution, but Baghdad's foreign minister said Saddam Hussein was studying the U.N. measure that requires him to eliminate weapons of mass destruction or face serious consequences.

Saddam remained silent on Friday's unanimously adopted Security Council resolution, but the official Iraqi news agency and Baghdad's satellite TV channel voiced the leadership's obvious anger over the measure.

``The whole world knows that the approval of this resolution was a result of U.S. blackmail and pressure exerted on the Security Council members,'' the TV broadcast said.

The official Iraqi News Agency denounced the resolution as ``bad and unjust,'' but said Iraq's leadership ``will study quietly this resolution and will issue the proper response in the next few days.''

Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League, meanwhile, sought to persuade Baghdad's envoy that Iraq should accept the U.S.-drafted document. Iraq has until Nov. 15 to decide.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher met with both his Iraqi counterpart, Naji Sabri, and with the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, David Welch, who said the resolution was consistent with Arab League decisions urging Iraq's compliance with U.N. resolutions.

Sabri gave no hint of how Iraq would respond to the resolution, which also calls for the return of U.N. weapons inspectors with a tougher mandate to seek out hidden weapons.

``Baghdad will study the resolution and we will make a decision later,'' Sabri told reporters after meeting Maher.

While Iraq has criticized the resolution, Sabri said that, in eight weeks of negotiations, the international community succeeded in diluting what he called U.S. plans for aggression.

Maher said Iraq had said it would accept the unconditional return of arms inspectors.

``I think that after the issuing of the resolution, Iraq will deal with it in the same spirit. This is what we hope,'' he said.

Arab officials and commentators said the resolution, which was revised to satisfy French and Russian concerns, had at least set back the chance of war.

Political analyst Abdel Moneim Said, of Egypt's Al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said the resolution would help Arab efforts to convince Iraq to accept U.N. demands and avoid a war that could oust Saddam's regime.

``The issue was redefined as an issue of weapons of mass destruction, and no longer a regime change,'' he said. ``Iraqis know that any little mistake will cost them a war.''

Saturday's meeting is being held by a so-called follow-up committee that examines progress on past Arab League decisions, but it was expected to concentrate heavily on Iraq. Sabri, who is not on the committee, was to attend the session.

All the foreign ministers or other diplomats representing the Arab League were to meet Sunday as well and also were expected to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher, leaving Amman for the meeting, repeated that Jordan would not take part in any attack on Iraq, its more powerful neighbor, and was still working to avert a war.

``There is still space for diplomatic action, which has succeeded until now to delay any military strike against Iraq,'' he said.

Jordan, which depends on Iraq for cheap oil and a market for Jordanian exports, would be hard hit economically if war broke out. But any prolonged conflict could upset the region's fragile economy and exacerbate differences among Arab nations.

The demand that Iraq eliminate its illegal weapons dates back to U.N. resolutions after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War.

Some on the sidelines of the meeting expressed the widely held view that Washington could use the resolution as an excuse to attack Iraq.

Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi said President Bush would see the resolution and the Republican victory in congressional elections as erasing the last obstacles to a war to topple Saddam.

``He believes that he has his mandate both from his people and the United Nations to launch his war on Iraq,'' Kamhawi said.