By
The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday that Iraq will attend talks next week aimed at breaking a stalemate over U.N. sanctions, but acknowledged that recent allied airstrikes could make dialogue "awkward."
Iraq, which wants the United Nations to lift crippling economic sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, sent word it still plans to participate in talks in New York on Feb. 26-27, Annan said.
"Obviously the timing is a bit awkward ... but the Iraqis have confirmed that they are coming," he told reporters at the U.N. headquarters. "So we will be able to pursue our attempts to break the impasse and pull them in to cooperate with the U.N."
Iraq has refused to allow the return of U.N. inspectors who must verify its claims that its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed before sanctions can be lifted.
Annan's planned meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf have been seen as a chance to start a dialogue on the intertwined issues of sanctions and weapons inspections.
Though a major breakthrough has not been expected from the meeting, the fact that Baghdad requested it and is sending a high-level delegation is seen as positive.
"It may take some time," Annan said. "I don't think ... we will have a miraculous breakthrough, but at least it's a beginning."
American and British warplanes bombed five sites in Iraq Friday in an attack the Pentagon said was designed to degrade Iraq's capability to defend against allied air patrols over the "no fly" zone over southern Iraq..
In a letter to Annan, Al-Sahhaf urged the U.N. chief to "condemn the dangerous aggression and the increase of tension" and to take "speedy steps to prevent such attacks from taking place again," the official Iraqi News Agency said Sunday.
Annan has not condemned the allied strikes on air defense and radar sites south of Baghdad. He said he was not consulted or informed before the airstrikes - the most serious attack on Iraq in two years.
"It was immediately after the air action that the U.S. authorities called to explain to me that they saw this as routine - not escalation, not a qualitative difference in their activities in Iraq - and that it was ... not to continue," Annan said.
The air raid drew widespread condemnation, some of it from key U.S. allies in the Middle East and Europe, who said it was time for Washington to reconsider its policies toward Iraq.
Russia, France and China - Iraq's key supporters on the Security Council - all said the airstrikes were unprovoked and would damage international efforts to resolve the sanctions issue.
China called on the United States and Britain on Saturday to stop military action in Iraq immediately to create a favorable atmosphere for the upcoming talks.
U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in December 1998, just ahead of allied airstrikes launched to punish Iraq for blocking inspections.
