U.S. Rejects Hussein’s Latest Offer

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, breaking his silence on the looming showdown with the United States over U.N. weapons inspections, said Friday that Baghdad is willing to accept any plan to avoid violence as long as its “legitimate” demands are met.

Hussein made the comments after a meeting with the Russian ambassador to Iraq, according to the state-controlled Iraqi News Agency. He was also quoted as saying Baghdad was not looking for trouble when it stopped cooperating with the U.N. inspectors last month, only “a response to Iraq’s legal demands” that international sanctions against his regime be dropped.

The remarks sounded conciliatory, but one Western diplomatic source in Baghdad remained extremely pessimistic, saying that the margin for negotiating was “slim to none.”

In Washington, the White House made clear that, in President Clinton’s view, Hussein’s latest overture fell far short of the mark.

“There’s nothing new in what he’s saying,” White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said. “He’s talking about an initiative based on his terms and based on his conditions. The message that he needs to get is, this has to be done based on the conditions and terms of the international community.”

Earlier Friday, before Hussein spoke, Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said it was not too late for Hussein to defuse the crisis. But both said all the concessions must be on the Iraqi side.

“Saddam Hussein has it within . . . his hands to end this crisis now by resuming full cooperation with UNSCOM,” Clinton said, referring to the U.N. Special Commission charged with ridding Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction in the wake of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

“We all want a peaceful outcome,” Albright told a news conference in Washington. “But it was Saddam Hussein who forced the U.N. inspectors to stop their work, and only he can put them back on the job.”

Despite the threat of a military strike, the Iraqi capital remained calm Friday, with little outward sign that the population was preparing for an attack.

In contrast to Iraq’s last big showdown with the United States over inspections, in February, there has been no call for military volunteers, no training in the capital’s parks. There were lines at some gas stations, but no signs of the panic and frenzied hoarding of some goods that previously have occurred when U.S. military action against Iraq appeared imminent.

On the whole, Iraqis realize that there is little they can do to defend against an attack, and they expect that any bombing or missile strikes to be concentrated on military targets.

At her news conference, Albright said the only way Iraq can avoid coming under attack is for Hussein to publicly rescind his order ending cooperation with the inspectors. She repeated the word “publicly” several times during her news conference, making clear that the United States will not compromise or negotiate and will not allow Hussein to claim any kind of victory.

At the same time, Albright said the U.N. Security Council is prepared to review the economic sanctions against Iraq if Baghdad cooperates with arms inspectors and dismantles the remnants of its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs.

“The point here is, it is Saddam Hussein’s responsibility to come clean. [He] needs to rescind his decision” before such a review, Albright said.

Peter Burleigh, the chief U.S. delegate to the U.N. who is the Security Council’s president this month, echoed Albright when he said the crisis will end only when Baghdad announces publicly that it will allow the U.N. arms inspectors to do their work.

“The council has made it very clear it also requires cooperation on the ground to be demonstrated,” Burleigh said. “The announcement would have to be authoritative . . . and clearly on behalf of the highest authorities of the government of Iraq.”

The Security Council met Friday evening with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss the crisis, deciding to send a letter through Annan to Hussein.

The mood after almost five hours of talks was grim. Several of the ambassadors, including Iraq’s representative, Nizar Hamdoun, looked deeply shaken.

“The situation on the ground may be running away from us,” Annan warned.

Once again, the secretary-general urged Baghdad to cooperate with the arms inspectors--a process that would lead to the council’s sanctions review.

But the chief sticking point remained. Diplomats who attended the council meeting said the United States and Britain reiterated their strong opposition to the review process leading automatically to the lifting of sanctions, as Hussein has demanded. Annan met briefly in his office with Hamdoun, who said he would relay the council’s letter swiftly to Baghdad.

Hamdoun, looking stricken, said he did not know the contents of the letter. “We will take a look at the letter and make a judgment,” Hamdoun said. “We still hope there will be a diplomatic solution. It does not look like the U.S. wants a diplomatic solution.

“Let them give diplomacy a real chance,” he urged.

Just before the meeting, Annan conferred with the ambassadors from Russia, China and France, the three countries most sympathetic to Iraq--and most opposed to military action--on the council.

“We are discussing diplomatic efforts to end the crisis,” Chinese Ambassador Qin Huasun said.

“It’s not about initiatives. It’s about hard work,” said Sergei V. Lavrov, the Russian ambassador.

“How much hard work?” Lavrov was asked.

“A lot,” he said.

Since the crisis began Oct. 31, Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard has been peppered daily with the question of whether Annan would travel to Baghdad, as he did in February to defuse that standoff over inspections.

Eckhard’s answer has been that Annan has no plans to seek a solution in Iraq but stands ready to consider a trip if the council decides that it is necessary.

With tensions rising and more American and British forces being sent to the region, the last U.N. weapons inspectors sealed their offices and pulled out of Baghdad on Wednesday, followed by about 150 nonessential U.N. humanitarian aid personnel by Friday.

In Baghdad, “fatalism” is probably the best word to describe the public’s mood, one diplomat said.

He said some Iraqis have even expressed a wish for a showdown, whatever it may bring, to finally move events off dead-center after eight years of economic sanctions that have reduced this once-vibrant city to poverty and grayness.

However, prayer leaders at the city’s mosques Friday insisted that Iraqis are girding for battle and ready to die resisting any U.S. attack.

“If the Americans enter, God forbid, we will fight until the last breath,” said Abdul-Latif Humayem, the prayer leader at one mosque.

Ignoring the threat of war, ordinary Iraqis went about their usual business Friday, a day of rest in the mainly Muslim country. After two days of rain, the air was fresh and cool, and many people went out for walks in the city’s parks. At one green space near the Euphrates River where hundreds of military volunteers trained with wooden rifles in February, teams of teenagers could be seen playing soccer.

There were few signs of military preparations other than the antiaircraft batteries that have always been on the roofs of important government buildings. But travelers going outside Baghdad have seen increased numbers of military personnel and equipment on the road, one Western diplomat said.

Fearing imminent bombing, independent inspectors who certify the arrival of humanitarian aid supplies into Iraq withdrew from their border posts Friday.

Without the presence of the inspectors who confirm that humanitarian aid supplies have arrived in Iraq, vendors of food, medicine and other approved supplies will not be paid--jeopardizing the relief program.

At the U.N., Burleigh said food and medicines were stockpiled inside Iraq, “so there is not going to be an immediate shortage.”

At U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the remaining 50 or so international humanitarian aid workers Friday continued their food distribution efforts, working with their Iraqi counterparts.

“We are trying in a very politically volatile environment to do work that has nothing to do with politics,” said Hans von Sponeck, the senior U.N. representative in Baghdad, speaking outside the mostly empty U.N. facility on the outskirts of the city.

“There is an element of normalcy here, which we wish will remain.”

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Times staff writers John J. Goldman at the United Nations and Norman Kempster and James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.

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