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India boldly welcomes Gulf 'pariah'

India formally and boldly welcomed Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadhan and a high level team of Iraqi ministers and officials on Monday evening as they flew into Indira Gandhi International Airport in a special plane of the devastated country.

Most important, it was an Iraqi plane that carried the vice president and his team to India. It is the second time since the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq after the Gulf War in 1990-91 that an Iraqi plane flew out of the country's airspace.

The visit, aimed at firming up India-Iraq relations, is a public announcement of India's repeated demand for lifting of United Nations sanctions against Iraq.

The Iraqi vice president is here on the invitation of Vice President Krishna Kant.

Ramadhan is being accompanied by a 17-member delegation including Oil Minister Dr Amer Mohammed Rashid and Deputy Foreign minister Nur Al Weiss.

The team will be in India up to December 1 during which Ramadhan would be calling on President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh will call on Ramadhan for detailed discussions on firming up Indo-Iraq relations. Last week, Singh, in a statement to the Rajya Sabha, made clear India's stand on the sanctions.

Singh told the House that India does not consider the recent bombings on Iraqi territory by America-led forces as 'authorised'. He said the sanctions were 'unjust and unwise'. He repeated India's call for 'lifting of sanctions at the earliest'.

A crucial meeting during Ramadhan's stay in New Delhi would be the one with Petroleum Minister Ram Naik. India presently imports oil worth $250 million per year from Iraq under the 'Food for Oil' programme of the UN.

Naik co-chairs the India-Iraq Joint Commission. His Iraqi counterpart Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid shares the chairmanship of the Commission, which is expected to discuss the involvement of India in oil exploration projects in Iraq. Sources indicate that ONGC Videsh Ltd might be interested in oil drilling in Iraq.

Iraq is expected to repeat its demand for Indian co-operation in developing its western region oil fields, where Russia assistance is also being solicited. India and Iraq will also discuss various possibilities of co-operation in trade, industry, technology, electricity etc.

The Iraqi vice president will also address a business meeting of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi.

On November 30, he will visit Bangalore. Governor Rama Devi and Chief Minister S M Krishna are expected to call on him.

The Iraqi delegation will be visiting Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which is expected to offer assistance to Iraq to rebuild its completely destroyed airline industry. The team will also visit the Bharat Electronics Limited and the International Technology Park.

According to reports from Baghdad, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was the first Iraqi official to fly out in an Iraqi plane in the last 10 years, when on Saturday he flew to Syria and Russia and then to China on Sunday.

If the flight is a breach of UN sanctions, discussions in New Delhi are expected to completely ignore the sanctions while finalising agreements. "Agreement is only a declaration of intent," the external affairs ministry spokesman said on Monday evening.

He said he was not sure if the flight was a breach of UN sanctions, adding that the visit is 'very significant' as it is the highest level Iraqi team to visit India in the last 25 years.

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