 Reuters Photo |
President Bush ( news - web sites) has demanded that the United Nations ( news - web sites) impose a deadline for Iraq to obey its resolutions to disarm or face the consequences.
Baghdad has flatly rejected Bush's demand for a swift and unconditional return of U.N. arms inspectors, raising the stakes in their high-risk confrontation and bringing closer the specter of a second Gulf War against the nation with the second largest oil reserves in the world.
"We feel very strongly that this open dialogue is much better than going to any harsh military action that will only evoke more suffering upon the people of Iraq and more suffering on our environment," Rahall said.
His visit is the first in several years by a U.S. legislator. Iraq has been under U.N. sanctions since it invaded Kuwait in 1990. The two countries severed relations shortly before the United States led a coalition of forces that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.
"We are not here as secretaries of state, we are not here as weapons inspectors, we are here as concerned Americans," Rahall said.
Rahall is accompanied by a delegation that includes former Senator James Abourezk and Norman Solomon, who heads the Institute for Public Accuracy -- a think tank with offices in Washington and San Francisco.
A member of Rahall's delegation told Reuters television earlier that they would ask Baghdad to allow unconditional return of U.N. weapons inspectors who left the country on the eve of U.S.-British bombing campaign in December 1998. They have not been allowed in since.
"We are going to recommend that they allow inspectors to come back full time and they allow them to do what they are suppose to do," Abourezek said.
It is not known yet whether Rahall and his group would meet President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites).
"We also want to tell the Iraqi people that the American people for the most part are peace wagering individuals not warmongers," Rahall said.
Rahall, a descendant of Lebanese peddlers who made their way to West Virginia to sell their wares to coal miners, said he wanted " to look for nutrition needs and medicine needs of the Iraqi people and find out what I can do about that."
The Iraqi press center said on Saturday Rahall and his group visited a hospital in Baghdad.
He wanted to acquaint himself with the real situation in Iraq "as a concerned member of the Congress who will be asked to vote upon the (Iraq) issue that may be put before the Congress in the next several weeks."
Rahall who backed the first president Bush during the Gulf War, told Reuters in Washington that he agrees "Saddam must go" but he has "serious questions" about the current U.S. policy.
"Why now, two months before an election? Why was the threat so serious now that it wasn't a year ago. I've seen certainly no link of Iraq to 9/11 (suicide hijack attacks on September 11, 2001 which killed over 3,000 people in the United States)... I just don't see linkage there."
Rahall said the "true enemies" are al Qaeda, the accused perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, and the focus should remain on defeating them.
