Iraq offers to renew acceptance of Iranian accord it violated, conditionally

BAGHDAD, April 28 (AFP) - Iraq said Tuesday it is prepared to renew acceptance of its border with Iran in return for Tehran dropping demands for compensation from their eight-year war which Baghdad started.

"Iraq is ready to renew the 1975 Algiers accord under which the two countries' border passes through the Thalweg, the deepest part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, if Tehran gives up its claims to damages under UN Security Council Resolution 598," the weekly newspaper Al-Shab said.

The paper, which is run by Uday, eldest son of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said Iraq and Iran "agree to continue their contacts on advancing the normalization process ... especially after Tehran officially announces that it will give up war damages."

Resolution 598, adopted in 1987, ended the fighting, but despite the ceasefire, no peace treaty has been signed. On the eve of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Baghdad announced that the Algiers accord was null and void and demanded all of the Shatt al-Arab.

But at the beginning of the August 1990 to February 1991 Gulf crisis, Saddam announced that he accepted the Algiers agreement in order to obtain Iranian support.

The waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow into the vast Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Gulf.

The waterway is vital for Iraq, which has no other major sea outlet.

Obstacles to an Iraqi-Iranian peace include prisoners of war, Iraqi aircraft sent to safety in Iran during the Gulf crisis, and each side's support for the other's opposition. Iran refuses to return the aircraft, saying that would violate the UN embargo against Iraq.

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