US favors Saddam's resignation, but has no plans
( 2003-01-03 10:13 ) (7 )

The United States thinks Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should consider resigning and leaving Iraq but the State Department said on Thursday it was not aware of any attempt to promote such proposals.

An Iranian newspaper reported on Thursday that the United States wanted to remove Saddam from power without the bloodshed or the billions of dollars that a new Gulf war would cost.

The daily Entekhab said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharrazi, by telephone that Washington sought a bloodless coup in Iraq with the help of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"...it's been heard that Joschka Fischer, German Foreign Minister, has told Kamal Kharrazi in a phone conversation that America is set to overthrow Saddam Hussein without a war, bloodshed and heavy military expenditure," it said.

The German foreign ministry confirmed the ministers spoke by telephone, but declined to comment on the content of their discussion. The Iranian foreign ministry declined comment.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher noted that US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have both spoken in favor of Saddam resigning.

"If he has the option, he ought to take it... I'm not aware of any active efforts to promote such proposals," he added.

"If the Iraqi leadership should decide to abandon its aims or abandon the country or if we have to force him to abandon the country, one way or the other, Iraq is going to disarm.

"We've also made very, very clear that the UN process is an effort by the international community, a final opportunity for the Iraqi regime to disarm peacefully," he said.

The Iranian newspaper, believed to be close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Washington had apparently harmonized its policy with Russia.

PUTIN TO BAGHDAD?

It underlined recent remarks by former Russian prime minister Yevgeni Primakov about the possibility that Putin might visit Baghdad to try to persuade Saddam to relinquish power and depart for Moscow.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it did not comment on media reports and had no information about any Putin visit to Baghdad.

Entekhab said the US scheme involved a compromise regime in a post-Saddam Iraq, including a limited role for the current ruling party.

"According to existing reports Iraq will be ruled in the future through a federal state and the Ba'ath party will not be totally removed from power," it said.

It added: "The composition of the future government in Baghdad will be influenced by the decisions made in the London meeting of Iraqi opposition last month."

Saddam Hussein's power base is drawn mainly from among the country's Sunni Muslims, and opposition to his one-man rule is strongest among the southern Shi'ites and northern Kurds.

The opposition, fragmented along sectarian and ideological lines, met in London to try to produce a joint formula for a democratic post-Saddam Iraq with only limited success.

Tehran remains strongly opposed to Saddam after its 1980-88 war with Iraq, but is reluctant to see a pro-Western government in Baghdad completing its encirclement by countries friendly to its arch enemy Washington following last year's Afghan war.

US President George W. Bush has labeled both Iraq and Iran part of an international "axis of evil" along with North Korea.