Global Policy Forum

By Eli Lake

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to improve Russian-Iraqi relations if Iraq cooperates with the United Nations in its weapons inspection program, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported.

Putin pledged in a meeting Wednesday with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, to continue to "occupy a pro-Iraqi attitude within the U.N. Security Counsel," the news service said. In the last year, Russia has consistently voted against the United States regarding sanctions against Saddam Hussein's country and the U.S. bombing campaign.

The State Department's deputy spokesman, Philip Reeker, said that while the U.S. government does not think U.N. Security Council members should be receiving senior Iraqi government officials, he was optimistic that Putin pressed Iraq to comply with relevant U.N. resolutions regarding weapons inspections.

The U.N. weapons inspection and monitoring regime has been suspended since December 1998, when U.N. inspectors left Iraq in the wake of Operation Desert Fox, the U.S. bombing campaign against Saddam's country.

"We are looking to Moscow to press Iraq to comply fully with its obligations under the relevant Security Council resolutions. And I think, if you refer to the wire reports I have seen coming out after that meeting, that in fact is what President Putin has done," Mr. Reeker said.

One analyst said that Iraq is looking to strengthen its relationship with Russia in order to further evade its obligations to allow weapons inspectors to investigate its arsenal.

"They want to turn the Russians to their purposes and the Russians very much serve Iraq's interests. In the security council, the Russians articulate an Iraqi point of view with regards to sanctions and weapons inspections," said Laurie Mylroie, author of a forthcoming book on Iraq, "Study of Revenge; Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America," due out in September.