Iraq's neighbours seek ways to avert war

Fearful that Saddam Hussein’s overthrow may lead to chaos in the region, Iraq’s neighbours met in Turkey today to discuss ways to avert a conflict and urge Baghdad to cooperate more with arms inspectors.

Turkey has proposed that the meeting adopt a joint declaration calling on Iraq to fully cooperate with the inspectors and declare that it will not develop weapons of mass destruction in the future, a Turkish diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Delegations from Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan – as well as Egypt met in a former Ottoman palace overlooking the Bosporus in Istanbul.

Kuwait, which was invaded by Iraq a decade ago, was not invited to the meeting. Unlike Kuwait, countries like Syria, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia are worried that a war that would result in Saddam’s overthrow may set a precedent and endanger their own regimes.

Turkey and Iran are against a war that could lead to the collapse of Iraq’s central government, fearing that minority Kurds in the north could become too powerful, inspiring their own Kurds. Turkey and Iran already compete for influence in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

Turkey and Jordan are worried that a war could harm their already fragile economies while Turkey and Iran fear a flood of refugees if war breaks out on their borders.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia rejects a possible Shiite state in the south that could be dominated by Shiite Iran.

Although Turkish and Arab diplomats have stressed that the delegates will not call for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to step down and go into exile as a way of avoiding war, the meeting was preceded by a flood of reports of such an offer.

“We only have one item on the agenda and that is how to help Iraq avoid a military strike,” said Mahmoud Mubarak, the assistant foreign minister of Egypt.

He said the delegates would be asking Iraq to comply with UN weapons resolutions and “we are ... asking inspectors to do their work in an honest and impartial way.”