Israel reportedly has assured the United States that it will not respond to any diplomatic overtures from Iraq.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin conveyed the assurance to Warren Christopher during the U.S. secretary of state’s recent shuttle trip to the region, according to media reports here.
It followed an overture several weeks ago by the Iraqis at the United Nations, to which Israel is understood to have responded coolly.
Rabin told Christopher that Jerusalem whole-heartedly endorses the Clinton administration’s “dual containment” policy, which seeks to isolate and contain both Iran and Iraq.
This is the same line that Israeli diplomats abroad reportedly have been instructed to follow.
An Iraqi official reportedly expressed interest in ongoing peace moves in the region six weeks ago to Gad Ya’acobi, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., who cabled home for instructions.
Ya’acobi reportedly was told, in effect, to rebuff his colleague from Baghdad.
Last week, according to Israeli reports, a further message arrived in Jerusalem that again expressed Iraq’s clear interest in being appraised of the situation in the regional peace process.
IRAQI MINISTER BRIEFED ON ACCORDS
Over the weekend, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Azziz visited Amman, Jordan, and met with leading government officials there for what the Jordanians said was a series of briefings on the recent Jordanian accords with Israel and their continuing negotiations.
According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, the United States protested to Israel several weeks ago, after receiving information that Uri Lubrani, a senior defense official who coordinates Israeli policy in southern Lebanon, had met with Arab businessmen who represented Iraq.
Israeli government officials said they do not view the Iraqi overtures to Israel as signifying any real change in Baghdad’s approach toward Israel, or the ongoing peace process.
Instead, they see it as an attempt by Iraq to curry favor in the West in the hope of speeding the removal of international sanctions that were imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
During that war, Iraq launched a series of Scud missile attacks on civilian targets in Israel. The attacks were accompanied by repeated Iraqi threats to destroy Israel.
Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin confirmed this view, saying that any overtures made by Iraqi officials to Israel were “aimed at improving (Iraq’s) relations with America.”
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, briefing reporters from the Diaspora Jewish media on Tuesday, reiterated Israel’s endorsement of the dual containment policy toward Iran and Iraq. He described both as “terrible countries.”
Peres said relations with Iraq have their place in the search for regional cooperation, but “only after Saddam Hussein (is out of power) and not before.”
(JTA correspondent Cynthia Mann in Jerusalem contributed to this report.)
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