U.N.’s Annan Begins Mission for Peace in Iraq

Seeking to break a potentially deadly stalemate over Iraq’s refusal to adhere to an international disarmament regimen, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday launched his mission here--what he said was his “sacred duty . . . to find a way out of this crisis”--almost immediately beginning talks with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz.

The two met privately for half an hour shortly after Annan’s arrival, clearing the way for wider negotiations this morning at Aziz’s request.

Annan also agreed to stay in this capital through Monday, a day longer than planned, for more discussions about a U.N. humanitarian aid program, which the Security Council on Friday voted to double. It permits Iraq--which has been punished with rigorous international sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait--to sell limited amounts of oil under U.N. supervision, using the revenue raised to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods needed by its 22 million people.

Although officials still have not committed to a face-to-face meeting between Annan and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Aziz promised “constructive discussions” aimed at ending the confrontation over United Nations weapons inspections that threatens to bring Iraq under American and British air attack.

But amid the diplomatic pleasantries were more ominous signs Friday. Antiaircraft guns pointed skyward, perched on the roofs of government buildings. And an ugly, defiant mood prevailed in the streets, where some Baghdad-based diplomats say the people, hardened and embittered by almost two decades of war and international sanctions, have rallied around their regime in the current conflict.

Instead of preparing themselves for a prospective air assault by taking steps like stocking up on food, buying bottled water or putting masking tape on their windows, Baghdad residents seemed to have settled into a sullen rage as they await action that may or may not come.

“If they bomb or not, it’s all the same to us,” declared Khali Bakr, 36, a grocer and father of two. “We are used to war.”

Emad Jenabi, a mathematics teacher, agreed, saying: “We have had attacks by Iran, Bush and now Clinton. This is very normal for us.”

Said Ibrahim, a Palestinian resident of Baghdad hurrying to his prayers, observed: “America wants everything but does not want to give anything to the Arabs. . . . They want to destroy Iraq to show to the whole world that they are the strongest.”

One government official said the Iraqis have been heartened by demonstrations in the Arab world and Europe against possible U.S. military strikes.

They were especially bolstered by the heckling Wednesday of President Clinton’s national security team at what was billed as a “town hall” meeting at Ohio State University in Columbus. State television broadcast excerpts of that Cable News Network program with subtitles. Chuckling at what he termed the “fiasco,” the government official said the meeting was further proof that “all the world is against using force.”

As Annan arrived, diplomats in the Iraqi capital were divided over whether a peaceful solution would be reached.

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One European diplomat said he is disturbed by the trends that he is witnessing in Iraqi society, especially among the younger generation, who grew up during the 1980-88 war with Iran, which was followed by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the combat with the U.S.-led coalition and seven years of economic sanctions. Isolated from contact with other countries and steeped in the Hussein regime’s propaganda, these young adults are now adopting an outlook that is “very radical, nationalistic and strongly anti-Western,” he warned.

In another sign of militancy, Sheik Abdul Latif Humain, an influential cleric close to the Iraqi leadership, said in a televised sermon at the noon prayer service that Annan should grant all of Iraq’s demands in the dispute and called on Iraqis to “be prepared for armed resistance.”

Annan arrived from Paris on a French government jet at Saddam International Airport, where the runways sprout patches of weeds and few flights are permitted because of the U.S.-enforced “no-fly” zones over much of the country. Iraqi officials usually require U.N. planes to land at an outlying air force base and travel more than 70 miles over land into the capital. Annan aides took it as a hopeful sign that Iraq gave permission to use the closer airport, with its VIP terminal, and that he was greeted with a calibrated element of pomp. Aziz, dressed in military uniform, headed the welcoming delegation.

The normally secretive Iraqi government has also permitted unusual numbers of foreign journalists into the country to cover this visit. Seventy flew in earlier Friday, and 40 were allowed to enter the day before. They joined an estimated 200 already in Baghdad.

“I’m . . . in Baghdad on a very important mission,” Annan told reporters at the airport. “In fact, I describe it as a sacred duty, and I’m here in search of a peaceful solution. I hope my talks in the next few days will permit me and the Iraqi leadership and President Saddam Hussein to find a way out of this crisis. As the secretary-general, I have . . . a moral obligation to try to reduce international tensions whenever I can. . . . I hope I will leave Baghdad with a package acceptable to all.”

In answer to a question, he said he was “reasonably optimistic that we will find a peaceful solution.”

Aziz said he shares that optimism: “What Iraq wants is a balanced and fair solution to this problem.”

After the brief airport ceremony, Annan and Aziz were driven in the same car to the government villa facing the Tigris River that has been set aside for the secretary-general and his top staff during their visit. Annan and his staff will meet first with a spectrum of other Cabinet ministers. U.N. officials have been told that a session with Hussein will hinge on the success of these early meetings.

In other developments Friday:

* A three-member map-making team, which freely surveyed eight controversial “presidential” compounds, reported to Annan that the sites are smaller than believed.

Steffan de Mistura, the U.N. official who headed the team, gave a far more benign description of the compounds than had been put forward by the U.N. weapons inspection team and its Australian director, Richard Butler. De Mistura told a news conference Friday that the sites cover 12.11 square miles--half the size estimated by Butler’s team--and described them largely as a collection of residences, guest houses and reception buildings.

The bland description by the Swede stands in stark contrast to suggestions by Butler’s inspectors that the buildings and bunkers could house chemical or biological weapons or records of Iraq’s illicit arms development programs. De Mistura gave no explanation for the discrepancy.

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But other U.N. officials said the Iraqis may have changed the compounds’ bounds when giving them to map makers, or arms inspectors might have been unable to reach accurate conclusions because they were barred from the sites. De Mistura’s findings may be used by Iraq to undercut weapons inspectors’ demands for more access to the compounds.

Fred Eckhardt, Annan’s spokesman, jumped into the news conference to remind reporters that De Mistura’s work differed from that of weapons investigators: He was to define the area of the eight sites in dispute, not to draw conclusions about activities there.

* The State Department urged Americans to postpone trips to the Middle East and suggested that U.S. citizens already in the region come home as soon as possible. The department also authorized dependents and “nonessential” employees at its diplomatic missions in Israel and Kuwait to return home at government expense. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright decided on the warning to travelers as a precautionary measure. Rubin steadfastly refused to describe the administration’s advice to Americans to get out of the Middle East as a prelude to an attack, but such a step always precedes military action.

* Under the resolution passed unanimously by the 15-member U.N. Security Council, the amount of oil Iraq can sell under U.N. supervision would increase from $2.1 billion to $5.2 billion over six months. This sum then can be used to buy food, medical supplies and other humanitarian goods. Iraq has been unable to sell its oil freely since U.N. sanctions were imposed after Baghdad’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The “oil-for-food” program was begun in December 1996.

The council has refused to lift the sanctions until Iraq complies with U.N. resolutions demanding that it destroy its weapons of mass destruction.

* President Clinton videotaped remarks to be distributed to broadcasters in the Arab world, seeking to send a sympathetic message to the people of Iraq while blaming Hussein for their deprivations since the Gulf War.

“No people have suffered more at the hands of Saddam Hussein than the Iraqi people themselves,” Clinton said in the six-minute tape, translated into Arabic, French and other languages. “I have been very moved, as so many others around the world have been, by their plight. . . . We have no quarrel with the Iraqi people, who are heirs to a proud civilization and who have suffered for so many years under Saddam’s rule.”

While it was unclear which broadcasters would use the video, “we expect it will be shown in most [Arab] countries, largely because the president of the United States--especially in times of crisis--tends to attract attention,” said William Armbruster, an official with the U.S. Information Agency in Washington.

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Times staff writer Jonathan Peterson in Washington contributed to this report.