Iraqi President Saddam Hussein called on Turkey to oppose US threats against Iraq, rejecting a request from Ankara to allow international arms inspectors back into the country in a letter made public Friday.
Writing to Turkish Prime Minister Turc Bulent Ecevit, Saddam again denied that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction or had any intention of producing them.
Ecevit had written to the Iraqi leader amid growing concerns in Ankara that Turkey's southern neighbor will be the next target of the US "war on terrorism".
"Iraq is among the first countries to want our region to be rid of weapons of mass destruction," Saddam replied in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP,
"We expect Turkey to respect the rules of good neighborliness and the principles of international law .... and oppose US threats by adopting a wise and balanced stance."
The settlement of the Iraqi question "must not stem from obedience to American arrogance but in the framework of the law," he said.
Washington "must first abandon its aggressive policy characterized by the embargo, permanent military aggression against the north and south (of Iraq) and interference in its internal affairs."
Otherwise, Saddam said, "there will be no global solution ... America can at any moment create false pretexts or use its influence on the inspection teams to commit aggression" against Iraq.
"We think therefore that the countries of the region must face up to this policy and not submit to it."
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said earlier, "We think accepting the arms inspectors will be a step forward and will reduce tensions...
"We hope this issue will be resolved peacefully but at the end of the day each country outlines its own policies and there is not much we can do on this issue."
He repeated that Turkey and Iraq's other neighbors were ready to engage in a joint effort to have UN economic sanctions on Baghdad lifted once it agreed to the return of the arms inspectors.
The United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990. UN inspectors went there after Baghdad's defeat in 1991 to dismantle its banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
But Iraq withdrew its cooperation and they left the country on the eve of a joint US-British military strike in December 1998.
Fears that Iraq would be the next target in the US military campaign escalated after US President George W. Bush accused Iraq, Iran and North Korea last week of forming an "axis of evil".
Speculation was fuelled further by news that US Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Israel, Britain, Turkey and eight Middle Eastern Arab countries in mid-March to discuss global efforts to combat terrorism.
In his letter to Saddam, Ecevit wrote, "Iraq is facing a new threat. We are making extensive efforts to prevent this threat.
"However for our efforts to bear fruit it is necessary for Iraq to take some concrete steps rapidly and, most of all, lift at once all obstructions in the way of UN arms inspections."
Baghdad has consistently refused to allow the return of the arms inspectors, rejecting a 1999 UN resolution to lift the sanctions if it did so.
If Washington decides to strike Iraq it will almost certainly need Turkey's support, just as it did in the Gulf War when US jets used bases in southern Turkey to launch bombing raids on Baghdad.
But Turkey fears that instability in Iraq could deepen its already dire economic problems and lead to the emergence of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
The area has evaded Baghdad's control since the end of the Gulf War in 1991 and Ankara fears a Kurdish state there could fan fresh separatist sentiment among its own Kurdish population, which in 1999 scaled down a violent 15-year campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey.
(China Daily February 9, 2002)
