Iraq Adopts Friendly Tone for Clinton

The government of President Saddam Hussein launched something of a peace offensive toward President-elect Bill Clinton on Saturday after two days of euphoric celebration in which the Iraqi leader emptied his automatic pistol into the air before thousands of supporters and later staged an outdoor rally under the close watch of U.S. fighter jets as his official farewell to George Bush.

“The President-elect had no part in any friction with Iraq,” declared a strangely friendly front-page editorial in Al Jumhuriya, the government newspaper that just two days before had condemned President Bush as “a killer of children, motivator of war and No. 1 criminal of Iraq.”

“There is no justification for the continuation of the personal motive of hatred for Iraq. The personal motive, the desire for revenge . . . which characterized Bush’s dealings with Iraq will no longer be there.”

The tone of the editorial in the daily paper--which closely reflects the views of the Iraqi Cabinet and bureaucracy--was among the most moderate and conciliatory since the United States led the allied team that battered Iraq and forced Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait.

But the government, which has effectively harnessed widespread hatred for Bush and his allies to mobilize a massive reconstruction program since the end of the Persian Gulf War, stopped well short of actually embracing Clinton in its first official comments on the impact of a Clinton Administration on Iraq.

“We realize that American politicians will not be on our side,” declared the newspaper Al Thawra, the official organ of the Iraqi president’s ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party.

Rather, Iraq’s new attitude appeared to be more akin to the personal relief of an underdog whose powerful opponent had retired before a title fight.

“I think everyone is now basing their analysis on that relief factor,” said one Iraqi intellectual familiar with the regime’s thinking who asked not to be named. “Those who support Saddam see Bush’s loss as Saddam’s victory. And that will keep Saddam from antagonizing the new American Administration.

“Those who dislike Saddam here also see Bush’s defeat as a victory--but Iraq’s victory, not the regime’s. At the very least, they feel the conflict has been defused. Without the personal war between Bush and Saddam, most feel the risk of another international war on Iraq is greatly diminished.”

Saturday’s Al Jumhuriya editorial clearly sought to reinforce that national sense of relief.

“Clinton publicly declares that his country has no need to show off its military might. It is rather in need of assuming the role of the economic giant,” the newspaper stated in optimistic language rarely used in connection with the United States and its leaders.

Al Jumhuriya concluded that the war clouds over Iraq--particularly in the northern and southern sectors of the country where U.S. warplanes are enforcing a “no-fly” zone to protect Kurds and Shiites from Iraqi persecution--will, in time, simply “vanish.”

Still, there were no signs of a concrete Iraqi peace initiative Saturday, and several diplomats and Iraqi analysts said Baghdad is likely to use the respite from war rhetoric to redouble its reconstruction efforts and its quiet diplomatic initiatives to maneuver around the 2-year-old U.N. trade sanctions that have crippled its economy.

Iraq already has repaired all but 13 of the 134 bridges the allies knocked out during two months of aerial bombardment. It has restored power and water to most of the country, but the continuing sanctions have all but depleted stockpiles of spare parts to keep those services going.

What’s more, Baghdad blames the sanctions for skyrocketing rates of malnutrition and illness in its children.

The United States, Britain and France, the most strident advocates of the sanctions, insist that they are needed as leverage to force Iraq to disclose hidden details of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, as required by U.N. resolutions Iraq was forced to sign after last year’s war.

Even as the Iraqi government was toning down its anger toward America on Saturday, another U.N. weapons inspection team was ratcheting up the rhetoric as it prepared to depart for mission No. 46 to Baghdad.

Restating the United Nations’ frustration with the Iraqi regime’s continuing refusal to identify the firms that had supplied it with advanced nuclear and chemical weapons technology, weapons team leader Demetrius Perricos told reporters at his headquarters in Bahrain, “I find it amazing why a state is saying how much they are suffering--the children and the women--from the sanctions and, at the same time, they are considering it immoral to reveal the procurement network.

“This I find inconsistent. I never could understand it.”

The Greek nuclear chemist said his team is planning to depart for Iraq today to spend 11 days scouring the country for remaining evidence of nuclear armaments and lay the groundwork to prevent future purchases.