IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 217 Monday/Tuesday, February 26/27 2001 _________________________________________ The Monitor is published each weekday by the Mariam Appeal www.mariamappeal.com ___________________________________________ FOR THE LATEST NEWS ON IRAQ AND THE MIDDLE EAST CHECK www.orientmagazine.co.uk EACH DAY ___________________________________________ CALL FOR AN END TO SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAQ To commemorate 10th anniversary of ending of the Gulf War 24-HOUR, WEEK-LONG PICKET OUTSIDE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS Thursday 22nd to Wednesday 28th February 2001 ____________________________________________________ IF YOU LIVE IN LONDON OR NEARBY, MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND THE RALLY AND MEETING AT 7.30PM ON WEDNESDAY EVENING IN THE GRAND COMMITTEE ROOM OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. AMONG THE SPEAKERS WILL BE JOURNALIST JOHN PILGER AND MPS TONY BENN AND GEORGE GALLOWAY.....PLEASE BE THERE!!!!!!! _______________________________________________ China ready to investigate U.S. charges on Iraq. BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday it was ready to investigate U.S. complaints its workers might have helped Iraq rebuild its air defences. It was the clearest public indication by Beijing that the Chinese government was seeking to defuse a problem that threatened a rocky start to its relations with the new U.S. administration of President George W. Bush. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman again insisted China respected U.N. resolutions on Iraq and had rules that forced Chinese companies to comply. But in response to a question at a news conference, Zhang Qiyue added: "Regarding the situation raised by the U.S. side, China can conduct an investigation." Bush indicated last Friday China was backing away from its original angry reactions to the U.S. allegations, saying Beijing had promised that if the charges were true it would 'remedy' the situation. ____________________________________________________ U.S. Is Ready To Loosen Iraq Sanctions. By Neil King Jr. Powell Says Proposals Would Let Iraq Buy Wide Range of Goods DAMASCUS, Syria - Secretary of State Colin Powell ended his Middle East tour confident that the time has come to radically revamp the decade-old economic sanctions on Iraq. After conferring for three days with Arab leaders, Mr. Powell said the U.S. is prepared to promote a substantial loosening of economic sanctions on Iraq so long as the international community commits to measures that will cut off Baghdad's access to weapons materials and tighten controls over its oil revenue. The secretary cautioned, however, that President Bush has yet to decide on the new approach and that the U.S. must still confer with many other countries. It's a strategy fraught with political risk, but the secretary insisted that unless the U.S. moves to focus the sanctions on their core purpose - keeping Iraq militarily weak - it could see Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein slip free of them altogether. The new stance on Iraq is sure to draw fire from conservatives in Congress. Mr. Bush himself repeatedly criticized the Clinton administration during the campaign for allowing the sanctions regime to weaken. Speaking to reporters on his way to Brussels, Mr. Powell sketched out proposals whereby the U.S. would let Iraq buy a wide range of products that Washington has blocked for years fearing they would bolster its military. Under the sanctions, Iraq is allowed to import goods only with approval of a U.N. committee, which also controls most of Iraq's oil revenue. The U.S., through its position on the committee, is now standing in the way of about 1,600 private contracts valued at more than $3 billion for products ranging from chemical components to telecom equipment. Other U.S. officials said Washington is ready to discuss revamping the list of products that the U.N. prohibits or restricts for sale to Iraq, in part to deflect criticism that sanctions have punished the Iraqi people. U.N. restrictions routinely hold up sales of goods such as water pumps and refrigeration trucks that are needed for civilian use, but might also form part of a chemical or biological weapons complex. It's unclear how the administration would draw the fine line between clear military products and dual-use items such as chemicals, which are also used for everyday purposes. In exchange for loosening import restrictions, Mr. Powell said the U.S. wants improved controls at Iraq's borders so the U.N. can more closely monitor what enters the country. This will require close cooperation from "frontline states" such as Jordan and Syria, he said. If economies suffer as a result of reduced black-market trade, the U.S. might consider economic aid to make up the difference, he added. Mr. Powell said the U.S. will also push for countries to reaffirm their commitment to prohibit the trade in goods that might help Iraq build chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. A new sanctions regime, he said, will depend entirely on creating a "unified stance" among Arab countries and within the U.N. Security Council. At the same time, the U.S. wants countries to crack down on oil smuggling that now earns Iraq an estimated $2 million a day. On that front, Mr. Powell won a rare concession from Syria during discussions in Damascus yesterday with President Bashir Assad. Syria reopened an oil pipeline from Iraq late last year and has since pumped an estimated 150,000 barrels a day outside of the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. Mr. Powell said President Assad promised to bring the oil sales under U.N. auspices. In all, Mr. Powell said he found "solid support" for a revamped Iraqi sanctions policy on his visits to five Arab capitals. "Not a single leader said, `You're going down the wrong path,' " he said. From Cairo to Kuwait City, Arab leaders told Mr. Powell that the harsh economic sanctions had given Saddam Hussein leverage both over his own people and over world opinion. After his return to Washington today, Mr. Powell plans to brief President Bush on the trip before the U.S. begins what could be long negotiations with countries such as Britain, France, Russia and China, the last three of whom have long criticized Washington's hard- line stance toward Baghdad. U.S. officials said they hope to make progress on the issue before an Arab League summit in late March. (Agencies) ______________________________________________ Annan cautious but optimistic on Iraqi flexibility. UNITED NATIONS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Iraq and the United Nations may have opened a new chapter in talks aimed at ending the deadlock over 10-year old sanctions, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan hopeful Baghdad was moving to end the status quo. Despite harsh words from Iraqi officials, Annan said he believed Baghdad's delegation on Tuesday would seek ways to move forward on a series of tough negotiations before U.N. arms inspectors could return to Iraq, a key demand toward ending the embargoes. "The spirit has been good and I think that, from the indications they have given, they also are anxious to find a way of breaking the impasse," Annan said. Expectations are low that the two-days of high-level talks that began on Monday would yield any concrete results. But some U.N. Security Council diplomats deemed them positive if Iraq considered the talks the beginning of a dialogue, rather than a one-shot session. And the leader of Iraq's delegation, Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, told reporters: "After this round, I think we will have a series of rounds." Annan also pointed to what he called an "important and healthy shift" stemming from discussions in capitals of Security Council members on what to do next. He referred specifically to a review of Iraqi policy by the new U.S. administration of President George W. Bush. "For a long time the attitude has been 'This is our policy, this is the way we do things,'" Annan said. "But I think recently we have put on the table that critical question - 'What should we be doing?'" Nevertheless, Annan said he expected no "miracles" after Iraqi officials spent hours on Monday detailing what al-Sahaf called Baghdad's grievances over the past 10 years. Al-Sahaf, in his public comments, which appeared harsher than those made to Annan, continued a barrage of criticism against "Anglo- American hegemony" in the 15-nation U.N. Security Council and the unfairness of the sanctions. He ruled out allowing inspectors to return to Iraq even if the sanctions were scrapped. If they did, he said, they had to visit all countries in the region and "first Israel because they have atomic arsenals and all other arsenals." "There will be no return for any inspectors to Iraq - even if the sanctions are totally lifted," al-Sahaf said. A key condition for lifting the embargoes, imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, is allowing arms inspectors to check on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Iraq has refused to let the arms experts back into the country since December 1998. They left on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing raid to punish Baghdad for what they called its failure to cooperate with weapons searches. For the United Nations, Annan will have little to negotiate until the Security Council agrees on a common position. France, Russia and China want an immediate suspension of the sanctions, while the United States and Britain are conducting a review of their policies. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has heard sharp criticism of U.S. policy during his Middle East tour, said on Monday he wanted to let in more civilian supplies to Iraq but tighten controls on military items. The United States has blocked close to $3 billion worth of goods to Iraq in the Security Council's sanctions committee, including electricity grids, water pumps and telecommunications, on grounds the military could benefit. Western diplomats believe Washington has undercut its arguments on humanitarian supplies by the "holds" it has put on 1,600 contracts for Iraq, an action criticized frequently by Annan and other U.N. officials. Asked about "smart sanctions" targeting the Iraqi leadership rather than civilians, al-Sahaf said: "They call it the smart sanctions. Well, that means the sanctions from 1990 up to now are stupid ones." __________________________________________________________________ POWELL SAYS ARAB LEADERS AGREE WITH PLAN TO RESTRUCTURE IRAQ SANCTIONS. BRUSSELS, Belgium - At the end of his Middle East tour, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had won agreement from Arab states to restructure sanctions on Iraq, so that opposition to U.S. policy in the region would dwindle but that the effect of the sanctions on Saddam Hussein would increase. Powell said that none of the Arab leaders he met with in the past three days, including the Syrian leader, Bassir Assad, whom he met on Monday, disagreed with his strategy. "They all said we should go down the track," Powell said. But he said there were some in Washington who would argue that his outline of a plan to ease sanctions on civilian Iraqis but tighten military sanctions on Hussein, the Iraqi leader, was "giving up too much." He suggested that there would be lively debate after he returned to Washington on Tuesday night, and seemed to be suggesting that hard- liners, both in Congress and in the Bush administration, would want tougher action, including the arming of Iraqi opposition groups, in an attempt to overthrow Hussein. Powell, speaking to reporters as he flew from Damascus, Syria, to Brussels late Monday, seemed to be setting up a test of his own strength in the administration's foreign policy apparatus, which includes Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and the national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice. Rumsfeld and Cheney are believed to be more favorably disposed to arming the opposition groups. Rumsfeld's newly nominated deputy, Paul Wolf, has publicly advocated that policy. There are others in the administration who agree, believing that the unfinished business of the Gulf War that was won 10 years ago should be completed by the ouster of Saddam. At ceremonies in Kuwait City Monday, former President Bush, Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf, Powell and others involved then commemorated the victory of the coalition forces against the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Powell spent his three days in the Middle East soliciting support for his sanctions plan, which he said would tighten restrictions on the Iraqis so that they would not be able to arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction. As part of his new strategy, Powell said he had won agreement from Assad to place revenues that Saddam was receiving from oil flowing through Syrian pipelines into a U.N. escrow account. In the past few months, these revenues have been going directly into Saddam's pockets. The commitment from the Syrian was so firm - it was repeated three times by Assad during the meeting, Powell said - that Powell said he telephoned President Bush to tell him. In another development in Syria, Powell said that Assad had agreed to a U.S. suggestion that peace talks between Syria and Israel could proceed on a parallel track with Palestinian-Israeli talks, if the occasion arose. Talks between Israel and Syria broke down last year under the Clinton administration, which held to the notion that it was possible only to conduct one track of peace talks at a time. In outlining his plan, Powell said, a lot still needed to be worked out before an Arab League summit meeting late next month in Amman, Jordan, where he said he would like to forge a formal consensus. He also wanted to take the plan to Kofi Annan, the U.N. secretary- general, and the five permanent members of the Security Council. Two of them, Russia and France, have taken the lead in softening sanctions against the Iraqi leader. Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE _________________________________________________ Russia welcomes UN-hosted talks on Iraq. Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 0840 gmt 26 Feb 01 Moscow, 26 February: Moscow expects the New York negotiations between Iraq and the UN secretary-general, which began on Monday [26 February], to open the way for a settlement of the Iraqi issue. Russia "regards as important the political dialogue" between Baghdad and the United Nations, sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry told Interfax on Monday [26 February]. "The process, which started with the active assistance of Russia, has considerable potential for a settlement of the Iraqi problem," the sources said. "Moscow is sure that the situation concerning Iraq can only be settled politically on the basis of UN Security Council's resolutions," they said. __________________________________________________ Iraq protests to UN over US-UK air sorties. Source: Republic of Iraq Radio, Baghdad, in Arabic 1500 gmt 25 Feb 01 Iraq has reiterated categorical rejection of the so-called no-fly zones, which were unilaterally and illegally imposed by the US administration and Britain. Iraq also rejects baseless pretexts used by these countries to justify their aggression against Iraq. This came in two letters sent by Tariq Aziz, deputy prime minister and acting foreign minister, to the UN secretary-general and Security Council president on combat air sorties carried out by US-British aircraft over Iraq from 16 until 22 February. The planes, which took off from their bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey, carried out 209 air sorties, of which 97 air sorties were from Saudi Arabia, 58 from Kuwait and 54 from Turkey. ________________________________________________________ Liberal Democrat in call for review of sanctions on Iraq. THe Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman yesterday called for a change of policy from Britain and the US after the recent bombing of air defence installations near Baghdad. Menzies Campbell MP backed containment of Saddam Hussein based on the threat of military action if necessary, but with sanctions covering only military material and equipment which could have a dual use. John Swinney, the SNP leader, has already voiced "enormous concerns" about the allied air strikes which, according to Iraqi claims, killed three people and injured 25. In a newspaper interview, Mr Swinney, while condemning Saddam Hussein's regime, said he did not understand how bombing would be part of an effective solution. He came under attack from Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, who said his remarks would encourage Saddam Hussein and do nothing to help the people of Iraq. Mr Swinney's predecessor Alex Salmond used tougher language in 1999 when he condemned bombing by Nato in Kosovo as "unpardonable folly". Speaking on Scottish Television's Seven Days programme, Mr Campbell said the SNP leader was wrong if he was suggesting we should not take steps to protect our aircrew. However, he went on: "He certainly has a point if he is arguing that the use of military force should only be seen in the context of clear, political and strategic objectives." The North-east Fife MP said the difficulty was that, at the moment, there were no such clear strategic and political objectives for the policy. It was right to protect aircrew, who were in danger flying over Iraq, but the much more fundamental question was why they were still there and if their presence was in any way part of a long term policy. Mr Campbell said it was ordinary that people in Iraq who had suffered from sanctions which had also handed Saddam Hussein an enormous propaganda advantage. If non-military sanctions were lifted that would leave us with "a perfectly rational policy", Mr Campbell claimed. An SNP spokesman said Mr Swinney had simply been voicing "legitimate concerns" which were shared by many governments, including France and Germany and leaders in the Middle East. Mr Swinney had questioned whether the present policy was likely to lead to the ending of Saddam Hussein's regime and the installation of a democratic government in Iraq, he said. Dennis Canavan, the independent MSP, has put down a parliamentary motion condemning the bombing raids. (The Herald) _____________________________________________________ No UN arms inspectors even if sanctions gone. UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Unrelenting, Iraq's foreign minister said on Monday U.N. arms inspectors would be barred from his country even if 10-year-old U.N. trade sanctions were abolished. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told reporters, after a crucial morning meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, that no inspectors would return to Iraq. And if they did, they had to visit all countries in the region and "first Israel because they have atomic arsenals and all other arsenals." "There will be no return for any inspectors to Iraq - even if the sanctions are totally lifted," al-Sahaf said. He spoke after the opening session between his high-level delegation and U.N. officials on ways to break the impasse on decade-old trade sanctions, linked to allowing the U.N. arms monitors into Iraq after a two-year hiatus. Disarmament issues were on the agenda for Monday morning and humanitarian concerns in the afternoon. Any unfinished business will be taken up on Tuesday during the first attempt in years to move beyond the status quo. Al-Sahaf said Baghdad had fulfilled all Security Council requirements and "that means an immediate lift of sanctions," imposed in August 1990 when Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait. Iraq has refused to allow weapons inspectors back into the country since December 1998, when the United States and Britain conducted a four-day bombing raid to punish Baghdad for failing to cooperate with searches for forbidden weapons. Asked what the Iraqi team had brought to the table, he said there were no new proposals. Instead, he said the Iraqis had submitted detailed reports proving Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Annan, shortly before the two-day talks started on Monday, said he did not "expect miracles" but was encouraged by various governments reevaluating their policies. Although expectations were low for the two-day sessions, Annan said there was an "important and healthy shift" which stemmed from discussions in capitals of Security Council members on what to do next, including a review by the U.S. administration of its Iraq policy. "For a long time the attitude has been 'This is our policy, this is the way we do things,'" Annan said. "But I think recently we have put on the table that critical question - 'What should we be doing?'" he said. No one expects the talks to produce an early agreement on issues that have eluded a divided 15-nation Security Council - especially allowing arms inspectors to verify Iraq no longer has any dangerous arms. "I am encouraged the Iraqi delegation is here," Annan said. "I hope we can find some ways as we move forward of breaking the current impasse, which no one finds satisfactory." "I do not expect miracles in the two days of talks but at least it is a beginning," he said. For the United Nations, Annan will have little to negotiate until the Security Council agrees on a common position. France, Russia and China all want an immediate suspension of the sanctions, while the United States and Britain are conducting a review of their policies. For a start, some U.S. officials said this could include releasing some of the 1,600 contracts from Iraq, worth close to $3 billion, that the United States has frozen over the past few years. They include mainly infrastructure repairs. Western diplomats said it was crucial that Washington and London find common ground with France, a European Community member. They said the meetings would be considered a small success if Iraq acknowledged they were the beginning of a dialogue, rather than a one-shot session. Annan too said he hoped the two days of talks would be a prelude to further discussions. He noted there had been considerable progress made in the last decade in ridding Iraq of nuclear arms and long- range ballistic missiles. But he said there was work to be done in the biological and chemical weapons areas and only inspectors could judge how much, "once they have been able to get back into Iraq." U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is in the Middle East trying to convince moderate Arab leaders to rebuild the now-frayed alliance against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But most have lost interest in sanctions, are critical of repeated U.S. and British attacks on Iraqi air defenses and are worried that Israeli-Palestinian violence will enhance Saddam's prestige. _______________________________________________________________ Medical team leaves for Amman to treat wounded Palestinians. Excerpt from report by Iraqi radio on 26 February The sixth Iraqi medical team left for Amman today to treat the wounded of the blessed Al-Aqsa intifadah at Jordanian hospitals. Dr Zuhayr Sa'id Abd-al-Salam, senior undersecretary at the Health Ministry, who bade the team farewell, told INA that the team includes medical staff specialized in general surgery, the central nervous system, bones, fractures, anesthetization and internal diseases... _____________________________________________________________ Iraq builds chemical weapons system 'capable of hitting European cities'. Iraq has been systematically cheating international controls to build up an arsenal of chemical weapons and a missile system capable of hitting targets in Europe. New details of the programme were leaked at the weekend by the German Federal Intelligence Service, which is becoming one of the main conduits of information about President Saddam Hussein's war plans. The German intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) identifies two alarming developments. First, Iraq has managed to manufacture solid rocket fuel in one of its factories. It is actively producing ammonium perchlorate at the al-Mamoun plant. The chemical is one of three components needed to make solid fuel. Secondly, it is attaching precision guidance technology to short-range al-Samoud missiles, which are modelled on Russian-designed Scuds. These are capable of hitting Israel. The BND says that there are clear signs that Iraq is pressing on with plans to develop, by 2005, a missile with a range of 1,870 miles, putting many European targets within range. As far as the BND is concerned, the most immediate problem is the rebuilding of an Iraqi chemical and biological arms industry. Even if Iraq cannot quickly go nuclear - or is prevented from doing so - biochemical weapons can be produced quickly, cheaply and discreetly. Once a medium-range missile system has been put together, Iraq will be able to wreak havoc by firing anthrax bacteria at, for example, a south German town. For targets close to Baghdad, such as Israel or Turkey, a Nato member, the threat is even more urgent. The equipment for the al-Mamoun factory was bought by a Delhi company known as NEC Limited, German intelligence says. This company is on the German Economics Ministry's blacklist of businesses involved in arms proliferation. Already the factory can manufacture banned chemical substances. Since the departure of UN inspectors, the BND says, the number of known chemical production projects in Iraq has risen to 80, with almost a quarter of them specifically working on weapons production. Indian companies have been active at all levels of this rearmament. Rudolf Scharping, the German Defence Minister, who is visiting Delhi, is believed to have raised his concern with Indian ministers and generals. Germany hopes to be able to monitor more closely Indian military activities by setting up a formal line of communication between the Indian general staff and their German counterparts. The disclosure that German companies were equipping a Libyan poison- gas factory caused embarrassment some years ago and drew the anger of the United States. This time the BND is determined to trace and expose all the middle men acting on Baghdad's behalf. ____________________________________________________ US faces uphill task to rebuild Gulf coalition. General Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, arrived in Kuwait last night determined to shore up the crumbling coalition against Iraq, which the Bush Administration has declared to be its top priority in the Middle East. Joining other Gulf War veterans, including the former President Bush and General Norman Schwartzkopf, the former Commander of US Forces, General Powell, who at the time was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was left in no doubt about the size of the task before him. >From what began as a coalition of more than 30 countries stretching from Australia to Argentina and including most of Nato and the main powers in the Arab world, support for the containment of President Saddam Hussein has shrunk to a handful of nations under pressure to free Baghdad from its international isolation. The extent of the problem was evident in Kuwait yesterday when supporters of the emirate, which was invaded by Iraqi forces in August 1990 and brutally occupied until February 1991, put on a show of strength in a live-fire exercise in the desert. RAF Tornados, part of a squadron stationed in Kuwait, bombed targets and some of the 4,500 US troops based here took on an imaginary Iraqi foe alongside Kuwaiti forces, substantially rebuilt since the war. If the display in front of spectators was supposed to act as a deterrent to Kuwait's menacing northern neighbour, which only a few weeks ago referred to this country as one of its provinces, it may have had the opposite effect. Instead of showing strength, it exposed the extent of Kuwait's lack of support among its former friends and neighbours. France and Russia, once active coalition members, kept a low profile yesterday. More disturbingly for Kuwait's role in the region, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia, which all played important parts in fighting the Baghdad regime, have put their policies in reverse. Cairo and Damascus, in particular, have rebuilt their ties with Saddam and have been lobbying openly for United Nations sanctions against Iraq to be lifted. President Bashar al-Assad, the new Syrian leader, has re-established friendly ties with Baghdad for the first time in decades. Damascus is suspected of being one of the main smuggling routes for Iraqi oil bypassing the international sanctions regime, a subject that will be raised forcefully by General Powell when he visits Syria tomorrow. There is even a feeling that the Kuwaitis themselves are uncomfortable about relying so heavily on the US and Britain for their security at the cost of their relationship with the Arab world. Although British airmen risk their lives every day to patrol the southern no-fly zone over Iraq, their presence here is highly sensitive. Journalists are barred from visiting the squadron. "We have lost the propaganda war with Saddam," a British diplomat said. "The perception today is that the UN sanctions are responsible for the deaths of children in Iraq. No one remembers that we are dealing with a dangerous dictator who is determined to rebuild his weapons of mass destruction and is a serious threat to his neighbours." As a result, the US and Britain are hoping to redefine their policies with a propaganda counter-offensive setting out the dangers that Iraq still poses and its attempts to rebuild its military capability. General Powell wants to implement "smart sanctions" that target the regime's leadership and its access to weapons but ends the delays, often bureaucratic, that frequently prevent the distribution of medicine and food to Iraq. Nevertheless, the job of persuading the Arab world to sign up to a new more forceful policy against Baghdad, while putting the Palestinian question to one side, will be difficult. With the exception of Kuwait, most Arab states seem to be ready to consign the Gulf War to history and to give Saddam another chance. (c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2001. __________________________________________________________ Iraq ready to settle all its problems with Kuwait. Baghdad is ready to "bury in oblivion" and to settle all the remaining problems with Kuwait, Speaker of the National Council (Parliament) of Iraq Saadun Hammadi stated on Monday, addressing a news conference in Abu Dhabi, where a session of the Arab Parliamentary Union is currently under way. "We are ready to start a dialogue with Kuwait in order to normalise our relations as desired by our Arab brothers," Hammadi stressed. The parliament speaker noted that the visit paid by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East on the eve of the Arab summit in Amman was intended to prevent the Arabs from rallying around Iraq. In the meantime, Hammadi noted, most Arab nations want the international blockade of Iraq to be lifted. According to reports received here from Baghdad, a spokesman for the Iraqi government said that the demonstrative manoeuvres, staged last night with the participation of U.S. troops in a Kuwait district bordering on Iraq, was a dangerous provocation. It was spearheaded against regional peace and stability, the spokesman stressed. kli/gor. (c) ITAR-TASS 2001. _______________________________________________________ The United States fiddles while the Middle East peace process burns. By Robert Fisk. As the wreckage of Oslo rusts away, the once-viable alternatives are slowly being dismissed' IN THE Middle East, Palestinians and Israelis are fighting a civil war. And what does the United States do? It bombs Iraq. As the brutal Israeli-Palestinian conflict further infuriates the Arab world, what does Secretary of State Colin Powell do? He arrives in the Middle East - wait for it - to "re-energise" sanctions against Iraq and re- forge the anti-Iraqi coalition that ceased to exist more than a decade ago. There's a story - perhaps apocryphal - that as the Red Army stormed into Berlin in 1945, German civil servants were still trying to calculate the Third Reich's paperclip ration for 1946. Mr Powell is now the paperclip man. So it's relevant to ask some simple questions. Do the Americans realise the catastrophe that is about to overwhelm the region? Have they any idea of the elemental forces that may be unleashed in the coming months? Is Washington still so obsessed with "World Terror Inc" that it can forget the tragedy that is unfolding in the Middle East? Does Mr Powell really think his job is to restate - as he did yesterday - America's "rock solid" commitment to Israel. Mr Powell has wisely abandoned that hoary old phrase, the "peace process". But he has apparently no idea what to put in its place. And what he was really confronting in the region at the weekend was a Middle East in which all the familiar "peace" keys have been thrown away. The Palestinian Authority is penniless and "ruling" - if such a word still applies - over anarchy. The Israelis have elected a prime minister who is regarded throughout the Arab world as a war criminal and who now demands an end to the "intifada" uprising which he himself provoked by marching to one of Islam's holiest shrines with an escort of a thousand policemen. Israel wants security without a peace agreement. The Palestinians want an end to the very real Israeli occupation which the Israelis themselves refuse to admit exists. So what does Mr Powell do? He heads off to Yasser Arafat with a warning from Ehud Barak that if he "doesn't change his behaviour, he'd pay a price". Mr Powell has only been in office a few weeks and he's already carrying Israeli threats to an Arab leader. But it's getting more serious than that. For there is occurring in the Middle East today a new and unprecedented phenomenon: the Arabs are no longer afraid. The regimes are as timid as ever but the Arabs as a people - brutalised and crushed over decades by corrupt dictators - are no longer running away. In Syria, the intellectuals are continuing their democratic debates despite threats from the state security apparatus. In Bahrain, the opposition are returning from exile to build a new and potentially democratic country. In "Palestine" - and we'd better keep the quotation marks there - the Palestinians no longer run away. They go on fighting and killing and dying. The old Sharon policy - of beating the Arabs till they come to heel - is now as bankrupt as the Palestinian Authority that is supposed to be controlling them. And as the wreckage of the Oslo Agreement rusts away, the once-viable alternatives are slowly being dismissed. For years, critics of the Oslo Agreement pointed to the undeniable UN Security Council Resolution 242 which demands a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories occupied in 1967 (the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan and east Jerusalem) in return for the security of all states in the area, including Israel. Oslo allowed Israel to renegotiate 242, to give back some occupied land but keep other territory for itself; which is why Oslo failed and why, ultimately, the second "intifada" broke out. Amid the carnage, Arafat began talking again about 242; so did Hanan Ashrawi and other sane Palestinians. But now even this alternative is losing its appeal. More and more among Palestinians, you hear the words that so frighten Israelis; that they would like "all" of Palestine, not just the lands taken by Israel in 1967. In Gaza last autumn, I actually encountered this transition in progress. A Palestinian computer trainee began by telling me that 242 was the only path to peace. But by the end of his increasingly angry peroration, he began talking about Haifa and Acre and Ashkelon, cities which are in Israel, not in the notional "Palestine" which Arafat was prepared to accept. Similarly, the "right of return". Throughout the seven years of Oslo negotiations, the "right" of the three-and-a-half million Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral lands in what is now Israel was kept out of the debate. This, we were told, would be discussed in final status negotiations. The Palestinians suspected that the Israelis - and the Americans - intended to throw away this "right" at the end of the Oslo talks. And that, of course, is exactly what happened. You can see why the Israelis refused; three-and-a-half million more Palestinians living inside Israel would mean the effective end of the Jewish state. But for the Palestinians, the brisk shrugging off of this "sacred" right (enshrined in a General Assembly but not a binding Security Council resolution) was a grotesque trick. And now that Oslo has collapsed, the "right" of return has become more real, more palpable, more serious - however unachievable in practice. You can see this process at work along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier. Just last month, I sat watching a Palestinian refugee family from Sidon as they picnicked on the Lebanese side of the frontier. It was a balmy, soft day of brilliant sunshine and the mother and father and their children - their family driven from Galilee in 1948 - never took their eyes off the beautiful, wooded hills on the other side of the frontier wire. Since the end of Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, countless Palestinian families have been able to travel down to the border to look at these same hills. For the soldiers on the other side, it is Israel. But to the Palestinians rotting in Lebanon, it is Palestine. They can go and look at it. It is real. Indeed the very Israeli retreat from Lebanon last year played a historic role in the changing perception of Arabs. The Hizbollah fought the occupation until the Israelis upped-sticks and ran. "Palestine" is not Lebanon. But the Palestinians learned a lesson. You don't have to be frightened of Israel any more. We can be sure that Colin Powell will not be dwelling on such matters as he continues his three-day visit to the Middle East. He'll be talking about Israel's "security" and about the need to re-focus attention on Iraq. We'll hear again about Saddam's weapons of "mass destruction". And while we do, the chances of a real peace in the Middle East based on UN Security Council Resolution 242 - a peace for Israel and a peace for a West Bank-Gaza Palestine - will go on withering. (c) Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited 2001. 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