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UN, Iraq End First Round of Dialogue
The United Nations and Iraq failed to break a two-year impasse over weapons verification Tuesday at the end of their two-day talks, but they agreed on a date for a second round.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahaf, who led the Iraqi delegation, described his talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the world body's headquarters in New York as "very objective" and smooth.
He said that they had gone through the details of very sensitive and complex issues with regard to the relationship between Iraq and the UN Security Council.
He said that during the first round, he and Annan discussed "what are the problems and what are the best ways" to address them. However, they did not discuss any proposals, he added.
Asked about the specific date for the second round of talks, the Iraqi minister said that it is very near and within a few weeks.
UN weapons inspection in Iraq has been suspended since December 1998, when the United States and Britain launched military strikes against the country. The Iraqi government has made the lifting of UN sanctions imposed in August 1990 as a precondition for allowing UN inspectors to return.
According to UN Security Council resolutions, the sanctions cannot be lifted until Iraq is verified to be free from weapons of mass destruction.
On the specific outcome of the first round of talks, the Iraqi minister said the first point is that "now we are using dialogue and before that it was a matter of some kind of arrogance on the part of certain members of the Security Council talking about the imposition of policies and conditions and so on."
He said Iraq is expecting through the secretary-general a feedback from the Security Council after he briefs the council on the first round of talks. Annan is expected to brief the Security Council on Wednesday afternoon.
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