Charles sips coffee in Basra

BRITAIN’S Prince Charles paid a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday, strolling around one of Saddam Hussein’s old palaces to inspect British troops and share a traditional Arabic coffee with local dignitaries.

Under a shroud of secrecy, the prince flew into the violence-wracked country’s southern port of Basra, the command centre of 10,000 British troops based in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition which ousted Saddam last year.

The prince’s lightning trip to Iraq, during which he met with troops of the Royal Regiment of Wales and the Parachute Regiment of which he is commander-in-chief, was the first stop on a four-day regional tour, officials said.

Accompanied by Henry Hogger, Britain’s main envoy to southern Iraq, the prince met Basra’s governor Wael Abdul Latif and Archbishop Gabriel Kassab, the leader of the city’s beleaguered Christian minority, and other senior figures.

He spent 45 minutes, accompanied by Italian envoy Mario Maiolini, chatting to Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) staff and workers from the coalition before attending a reception in the palace grounds with local leaders.

Witnesses said the prince had been at ease with local guests, despite a level of secrecy almost on a par with the operation that brought US President George W Bush on a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit to Iraq last November.

“I think it was a very successful opportunity for the prince to meet a cross-section of Iraqi society, he did spend quite a time talking to the people who were there,” said Basra-based CPA spokesman Dominic d’Angelo.

“The people I spoke to said he was well-informed about the changes facing the CPA and Iraq as it moves towards the return of sovereignty.”

According to a November agreement between Washington and the country’s interim government, sovereignty will be handed to an unelected Iraqi government by June 30.

But following protests for elections by the Shi’ite Muslim majority, a UN mission arrived in Iraq on Saturday to study the feasibility of holding swift polls, which could push back the June 30 transfer date.

On the streets of Basra, news of the visit was met with bemusement from residents, who have been too caught up in Iraq’s years of conflict and hardship to share the global obsession with Britain’s royal family.

“He is here for his own benefit, not for Iraq’s. This is superficial,” said teacher Zenab Mohammad.

“He is coming to visit us while his forces are occupying us, he is not welcome here.”

Later, Prince Charles flew to Tehran in Iran, ahead of a visit to the southeastern city of Bam, devastated by an earthquake in December that killed 43,000 people.

He was heading a small delegation in a “completely unpolitical” and “purely humanitarian role” as patron of the British Red Cross, British sources said.