Gulf peace talks still ‘at square one’

Press, 5 September 1988, Page 8

Gulf peace talks still ‘at square one’

NZPA-Reuter Geneva As Iraq commemorates the anniversary of what it regards as the start of its eight-year war with Iran, peace talks in Geneva are deadlocked and immediate prospects for a lasting settlement look bleak.

The United Nations mediator, Jan Eliasson, yesterday held more than four hours of separate talks with the Iraqi and Iranian Foreign Ministers but little if any progress appears to have been achieved. The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Tareq Aziz, blamed Iran for the deadlock, saying it continued to reject its key demands of a major cleaning-up operation in the Shatt al-Arab waterway and freedom of navigation for Iraqi ships in the Gulf. “We have to say we are still at square one, we have not gone beyond that square,” he told reporters after a 75-minute meeting with Mr Eliasson, who took over as mediator from the United Nations Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, on Fri-

day. His Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Velayati, would not be drawn into the question of responsibility for the deadlock when he emerged later from a two-and-a-half hour meeting with the Swedish diplomat. He only said: “We had very constructive talks with Mr Eliasson, and I only hope we can continue our talks during the next few days.” He declined to answer questions and refused to say whether he had yielded to any of the Iraqi demands in exchange for concessions. United Nations diplomats said Mr Eliasson might shed some light on the latest bargaining positions of the two belligerents when he holds a news conference today.

Teheran has said it will not agree to a cleaning up of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, Iraq’s only outlet to the sea, unless Bagdad withdraws its troops from occupied Iranian territory. It also wants recognition of the validity of the 1975 Algiers treaty which granted it sovereignty over the eastern half of the waterway. Iraq tore up the treaty a few days before invading Iran on September 22, 1980. So far, both sides have refused to budge on the key issues which each considers essential to get negotiations off the ground, diplomats said. As prospects for reaching a lasting settlement in Geneva looked increasingly bleak, Iraq prepared to commemorate the an-

niversary of what it considers the start of the war in which at least a million people have been killed or wounded. Iraq says the war started on September 4, 1980, when Iran began shelling two Iraqi border towns. The occasion will be marked by week-long ceremonies, including speeches, the ringing of church bells and laying wreaths on monuments to the war dead. Iran regards September 22 as the start of the world’s longest and bloodiest conflict since World War Two. The two countries have also accused each other of ceasefire violations, Iraq saying it had reported to United Nations observers 21 such instances in the last two days alone.