Peace emissaries from Baghdad are fanning out across the world in an effort to garner opposition to a US military offensive against Iraq.
Yesterday the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Naji Sabri, began a visit to China, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, to bolster Beijing's rejection of the war option. He is due to fly from there to Russia.
Today, the Iraqi Vice President, Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan, is due in Damascus. The main focus of his discussions with the Syrian President, Dr Bashar al-Assad, will be the establishment of three joint companies with combined budgets of $500 million.
Mr Ramadan's visit comes a few days after the Iraqi Trade Minister, Mr Muhammad Mahdi Saleh, was in Syria on a tour which also took him to Ankara.
While there, Mr Saleh said that the scope of economic co-operation between Iraq and Turkey would be "more or less" at the same level as a $40 billion Russian deal set to be signed next month. He warned Turkey that its economy would be harmed if the US attacked Iraq. Turkey claims it has lost $50-60 billion in trade and transit revenues since the 1991 Gulf war.
Last week, Mr Ramadan spoke approvingly of Saudi Arabia's rejection of an attack on Iraq and expressed the hope that diplomatic relations would be restored, indicating that Baghdad was ready for renewal of relations, cut after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
"We are confident that [the Saudis\] understand the American threats against Iraq are against the whole Arab nation," he stated. He said Iraq was prepared to mend fences with Kuwait.
Yesterday the Foreign Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassen al-Thani, arrived in Baghdad, where he had to handle a tricky situation with delicacy. The US has been shifting military material to al-Udeid base in Qatar from Saudi Arabia, which has refused the US use of the facility for an offensive against Iraq. The minister said, "We are opposed to any military action," said that the US has not requested facilities and called upon Iraq to implement UN resolutions.
