Chavez Goes His Own Way — To Iraq
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez held talks with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Thursday, defying the United States by being the first head of state to go to Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War.
Chavez met with Saddam in Baghdad after flying to the Iraqi capital from the Iraqi-Iranian border. He crossed the frontier from Iran in a car, respecting a U.N. ban on flights to and from Iraq.
Chavez described his talks with Saddam as fruitful.
"We spoke at length on how to boost the role of OPEC," he said, referring to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Iraq laid out the red carpet for Chavez, trumpeting his visit as a breach of its isolation and a slap in the face for Washington, which said the trip would give an undeserved legitimacy to Saddam.
"What can I do if they (Americans) get upset?" said Chavez, who has bucked U.S. foreign policy before. "We have dignity and Venezuela is a sovereign country."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher questioned why Chavez would want to elevate the prestige of a dictator "who has invaded neighboring countries, occupied neighboring countries, persecuted his own people and violated human rights."
U.S. officials also charged that Iraq was using the trip as a propaganda tool. An analyst agreed.
"I think he was looking for an opportunity to spit in the United States's eye," said Patrick Clawson, research director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "There is no agenda between Venezuela and Iraq, except for their OPEC ties."
Chavez said he was received warmly by Saddam.
"Imagine, he took me on a ride in Baghdad while he was driving the car," he said.
Saddam had been expected to greet Chavez when he arrived at the airport in the capital, but he didn't, the official Iraqi News Agency reported. The agency did not say why Saddam did not show up.
Chavez, who drove into Iraq, could have run into trouble if he had flown into Iraq from Iran, where he met with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami Thursday morning. A 1990 U.N. Security Council resolution imposing an air embargo has been disputed, but invariably observed.
Further emphasizing Venezuela's opposition to U.S. policy towards Iraq, Deputy Foreign Minister Jorge Valero told reporters Thursday that Chavez offered Saddam his support for ending U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
"President Chavez affirmed the Venezuelan position supporting any accord against any kind of boycott or sanctions that are applied against Iraq or any other country in the world," Valero said, speaking to Venezuelan reporters by phone from Baghdad.
Chavez's trip to the Middle East was designed to drum up support for a summit of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Caracas on Sept. 27.
On Thursday, he urged OPEC states to work together to support the price of oil which, he said, contrary to the U.S. view, was not too high.
Chavez said that iprices fell again as they did last year, it would be "catastrophic" for a country like Venezuela.
Iraqi Oil Ministry officials have said they regard Venezuela, previously a notorious buster of OPEC production quotas, as an "oil-producing partner" with whom they can coordinate plans to counter the influence of heavyweight Saudi Arabia.
Chavez's tour has taken him to Kuwait, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this week. Unlike these OPEC states, Iraq is not part of the cartel's quota system but its exports of nearly 2.6 million barrels a day under a U.N. aid program cannot be ignored.
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