The World - News from Oct. 19, 1988

Iraq has agreed to an exchange of prisoners taken in its long war with Iran, but it maintains that the move is not related to its peace talks with the Tehran government, according to a letter to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar. Iraq’s U.N. ambassador, Ismat Kittani, said in the letter that the Baghdad government will begin the POW exchange if Iran reciprocates. However, Kittani called the POW question a humanitarian issue and said it has no bearing on peace talks. In Baghdad, meantime, a top Iraqi official said Iran is setting unacceptable conditions for ending the war by insisting that both countries maintain a treaty setting their border in the middle of the Shatt al Arab waterway.