Bid to end Golf war

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 6

Bid to end Golf war

NZPA-AP Bagdad Seven Arab Foreign Ministers met in Bagdad yesterday to discuss “ways of exerting pressure on Iran” to end the 47-month war with Iraq, the official Iraqi News Agency reported. There were indications that the Ministers had considered a plan to offer oil importing nations a good deal on their purchases if they would not buy oil from Iran. The Iraqi agency said the chief diplomats of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, North Yemen, Tunisia and Iraq, and the Arab League SecretaryGeneral, Chadli Klibi, assessed the outcome of contacts they have had with

foreign officials during the last five months. One Arab diplomatic source said the Ministers “failed to agree on specific proposals aimed at organising a campaign of international economic pressure on Iran to force it to accept a negotiated settlement” to the war. He also said they were considering “direct contacts with some foreign countries to convince them to refrain from buying Iran’s oil in return for certain compensations.” He spoke with the Associated Press under the condition that he not be identified. At a news conference, Mr Klibi was asked if efforts would be made to persuade oil importers to refrain

from buying Iranian oil. He did not answer directly, but said the Foreign Ministers were using “all possible ways to convince States that we contact to change their way of dealing with the present situation (in the Gulf).” He said the committee had “decided to launch new contacts in Moscow and Washington to continue the dialogue with the two capitals regarding an end to the war.” The “United States stand regarding the war is positive,” he said, but did not elaborate. Iraq, an Arab nation, has the support of most Arab countries except Syria and Libya. They back Iran, which is predominantly Persian/ __