Gulf peace bid in deadlock

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 9

Gulf peace bid in deadlock

NZPA-Reuter Jeddah An Islamic peace mission said yesterday its efforts to end the 25-month Gulf war were deadlocked as President Ali Khamenei of Iran described its revised peace plan as unsatisfactory. President Ahmed Sekou Toure, of Guinea, chairman of the Islamic Conference Organisation's peace committee, was quoted by the Saudi Arabian newspaper “Okaz” as saying: “We have come to a deadlock.” The committee, formed by an Islamic summit conference in January last year, held crisis talks in Jeddah to make a final assessment of the attempts to interest Teheran and Bagdad in a revised peace plan. But Mr Sekou Toure was quoted as saying that the committee — which groups Guinea, Gambia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Turkey, Senegal, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the organisation — could not

continue fruitless mediation efforts.

Previous attempts to end the war by the United Nations and the non-aligned movement have failed, and diplomats had said that the mission stood little chance of success. The 12-member mission, led by the Senegalese Foreign Minister, Mr Moustapha Niasse, and composed mainly of ambassadors, delivered new peace proposals to President Khamenei and President Saddam Hussein, of Iraq,and sounded out the possibilities for peace. It reported back to Mr Sekou Toure and the group’s secretary-general, Habib Chatti, in Jeddah yesterday. Teheran Radio quoted President Khamenei as saying that the fresh peace proposals contained nothing new and did not meet Iran’s conditions. He added that peace was impossible until Teheran’s conditions were met.