Iraq's Sahaf flies to US

Iraq's Sahaf flies to US
REUTERS

BAGHDAD: Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf headed to New York on Wednesday to attend UN talks next week on decade-old Gulf War sanctions. "I will start my travel today to New York to attend the dialogue scheduled with (UN) Secretary General (Kofi Annan)," Sahaf said.

"Despite the secretary general's silence toward theAmerican-British aggression and has not condemned it...we are attending the comprehensive dialogue," he said.

Annan said on Tuesday the United States had assured him theair attacks were "not an escalation, not a qualitative difference in their activities in Iraq".

"Obviously, the timing (of the bombing) is a bit awkward forthe talks that I'M Going to have on the 26th, but the Iraqis have confirmed they are coming," Annan said.

"So we will be able to pursue attempts to break the impasseand pull them (Iraqis) into cooperation with the U.N.," he added.

Comprehensive sanctions, including an embargo on oil salesand weapons purchases, were imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait and then was forced out in 1991 by a U.S.-Led international coalition.

Washington and London long insisted sanctions could not belifted until Baghdad complied fully with Gulf War ceasefire resolutions, especially those demanding that U.N. inspectors oversee the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

The sanctions regime is now crumbling and the internationalcommunity, including the United States, is considering ways to focus the sanctions more tightly on the Iraqi regime, not the Iraqi people.