Team views reaction to Gulf peace bid

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 8

Team views reaction to Gulf peace bid

NZPA-Reuter Bahrain An Islamic mediation team today assesses the reaction of Iran and Iraq to fresh proposals for settling their 25-month-old conflict, and whether a new high-level peace mission would be worth while. President Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea, leader of the Islamic Conference Organisation's peace committee, has been briefed in Jeddah on the outcome of yesterday’s shuttle to Teheran and Bagdad of the mediation team, said officials. The group’s SecretaryGeneral, Mr Habib Chatti, told reporters in Jeddah that the committee would discuss the mission’s report today. The mission, headed by the Senegalese Foreign Minister, Mr Moustapha Niasse, and composed of ambassadors, took new suggestions on end-

ing the conflict to the Iranian President, Mr Ali Khamenei, and Iraq’s President, Mr Saddam Hussein. The officials said that Mr Sekou Toure and Mr Chatti would decide after considering the results of the team’s trip whether to visit Teheran and Bagdad to pursue peace talks. Mr Khamenei told the mission that Iraq had started the war and Iran was not interested in continuing the fighting, the Iranian news agency reported. Iraq’s revolutionary com-

mand council vice-chairman, Izzat Ibrahim, said that Bagdad’s initial reaction was to approve the plan. Previous peace efforts by the 43-member group and by the United Nations and the non-aligned movement have proved fruitless, and diplomats said there were no signs that the recent moves

would be any more successful.

The peace committee was set up by an Islamic summit conference in January last year. Its members are Guinea. Gambia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Turkey. Senegal, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the 1.C.0.

Iraq made military gains early in the war, but Iran turned the tide last year, beating back Iraqi forces occupying parts of southwest Iran. Iran now holds' land in southern and northern Iraq, according to Hojatoleslam Hashemi Rafsanjani, the speaker of the Iranian Majlis (Parliament). He was quoted by the Iranian news agency as saying that Teheran was financially able to continue the war for a long time.