Iraq cranks up charm offensive

Mounting American pressure is being felt in Baghdad, causing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to pick up the pace of a new charm offensive meant to undermine US war plans for Iraq.

The distance Iraq is going to avoid war is evident in a host of steps that would have seemed impossible compromises just a few weeks ago - from total cooperation with United Nations weapons inspectors and talk of democratic reform, to an unprecedented but qualified presidential apology late Saturday over Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Analysts say the moves are calculated to maximize chances for Mr. Hussein's survival while complicating US diplomatic efforts to forge an anti-Iraq coalition. But they also demonstrate how close Hussein's toes have been dragged toward the fire.

"Saddam is like a stripper, taking off one piece of clothing at a time," says a veteran Arab analyst who asked not to be identified.

"The problem is, he is getting down to his last one or two pieces, and will soon be naked."

The UN Security Council yesterday received a 11,807-page declaration billed by Baghdad as a "currently accurate, full, and complete" accounting of Iraq's past and present chemical, biological, missile, and nuclear-weapons programs.

Even as Iraqi officials were handing over this vast document, which has already drawn US skepticism, a letter from Hussein read on Iraqi TV apologized to the people of Kuwait. But the grudging statement also accused Kuwaiti rulers of "plotting hand-in-hand with foreign armies" to facilitate US occupation of Iraq.

"The heat is getting very, very close to Saddam," says Youssef Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington. "But at the same time, he is twisting the diplomatic game and making it very difficult for the Bush administration - which by all accounts appears absolutely intent on attacking Iraq - to carry its plan out.

"The world community will have a hard time ignoring all these steps," he says, "the opening of the presidential palaces, the lack of Iraqi objections, the fact the inspectors keep saying we haven't found anything. All this is adding considerable weight against the American position."

As Iraq showed off the declaration in Baghdad, the head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, Lt. Gen. Hassam Mohamed Amin, said the US and Britain should be satisfied. "This should prevent any threat against Iraq - not only war," General Amin said. "If the US has the minimum level of fairness and braveness, it should accept this and say 'Yes, this is the truth.' "

While TV cameras focus on the declaration and Iraq's surprise apology for its brutal occupation of Kuwait, Hussein has taken a string of other steps to curry favor with his own people.

Page: 1 | 2