BAGHDAD, February 24: Kofi Annan's aides saw it as a good omen: Iraq allowed the UN Secretary General's plane to land at the mostly deserted Saddam Hussein international airport. A small, but significant gesture. UN personnel must normally fly into a drab military airfield and drive more than an hour to Baghdad. By letting Annan use the closer international airport, the Iraqis were telegraphing that they had high hopes for the visit.But success was not instant. In three days of negotiating, close aides said, Annan had to listen to long lists of Iraqi grievances, deciding which to answer and which to let pass in the interests of focusing on his immediate mission. A UN linguist had to offer draft after draft of a final agreement, looking for language booby traps. And UN officials discussed intently how Annan should handle his most critical meeting, with President Saddam Hussein himself.
The mission began as Annan, dressed in a grey suit, stepped from his French government jet shortly after 6 p.m. onFriday. Iraqi dignitaries and foreign diplomats were lined up to welcome him. Annan said he was optimistic his mission would succeed. Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, standing next to him in an olive green uniform, said he shared the Secretary General's ``optimism''. Like good poker players, however, the Iraqis were careful not to show their hands. Aziz met Annan and his party Friday night but the session was mostly social.
Day two for Annan began at 7:30 a.m. He rose early to begin preparing for his first formal session with the Iraqis. Russian envoy Viktor Posuvalyuk arrived at the pink stucco villa where Annan was staying to brief the Secretary General on his own marathon talks with the Iraqis. As the two sat in red-cushioned chairs in a marble-floored salon, aides said Posuvalyuk believed Baghdad was ready for serious talks already hinted at by Iraq's UN ambassador.
Shortly before 10 a.m., Annan and his eight-member delegation were driven to the Iraqi foreign ministry across the muddy Tigrisriver. After handshakes for the cameras, Annan and Aziz left for a private room, where they remained for the next 90 minutes the start of about 15 hours of diplomacy in which the UN chief would often negotiate alone. While UN officials and Iraqi cabinet members lounged on sofas or strolled aimlessly, Annan presented Aziz with a UN memorandum that outlined broad terms of a settlement.
After the lengthy private meeting, the two summoned other negotiators. As the two delegations sat across a wooden table in a small paneled conference room, aides said Aziz railed on for about an hour detailing Iraq's complaints against the UN weapons inspection programme. Aziz, again wearing a green military uniform, complained the inspectors now wanted to wander through the President's private residences and rummage through his possessions which no sovereign nation could tolerate. Annan, a reserved figure who rarely raises his voice above a whisper, listened impassively.Envoys and foreign leaders familiar with the Iraqisadvised him not to get bogged down in point-by-point rebuttals and to keep the discussions focused on major topics. When his turn came to speak, Annan said that regardless of what the government thought of the inspection programme, Security Council resolutions requiring Iraq to destroy its lethal weaponry must be respected.
He referred to the US and British buildup in the Gulf. ``The military option is close to being exercised,'' aides quoted Annan as saying. Annan also told Aziz that the two had to decide on something to tell the hundreds of journalists from all over the world who had gathered in Baghdad for the showdown. Aziz suggested they describe the meeting as a ``constructive dialogue''. The meeting adjourned at 1 p.m. and Annan told the reporters he was ``rather optimistic'' a deal could be reached.
At the Secretary General's villa, Annan and his aides talked over the morning session and concluded that Aziz's strong criticism of the inspection programme did not mean the Iraqis were stonewalling.The best way to push the negotiations forward, Annan told them, was to avoid allowing the talks to degenerate into mutual recriminations. They met again at 6 p.m. That session went better. Instead of polemics, the two sides went through the negotiating memorandum line by line in English marking areas of disagreement in brackets. Once all those points were identified, the Iraqis suggested changes in the text. No agreement yet, but the two sides understood one another better. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m. for dinner.
Aziz went to a meeting of the ruling Revolutionary Command council to brief Hussein. Back at Annan's villa, the chief UN legal officer, Hans Corell, made changes in the draft memorandum. An accomplished linguist fluent in several languages, Corell had to ensure the document's language was flexible enough to satisfy both sides but precise enough to prevent the Iraqis from reinterpreting the language if the agreement was signed. Most of the haggling was down to semantics rearrangingsentences, choosing different words. Corell would submit revision after revision until the two sides agreed. The meeting broke up at 2 a.m. Annan still had to telephone leaders of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
