Saddam Hussain looks towards India for help

NEW DELHI: Iraqi President Saddam Hussain is sending a special envoy to India ahead of the UN weapons inspections as Baghdad tries to secure support from the international community against any US attack on Iraq.
Iraqi minister of information, Mohammed Saeed Al Sahaf will arrive in New Delhi on November 21 on a two-day visit and is scheduled to meet with senior Indian leaders.
Having secured a brief reprieve by agreeing to deal with UN inspectors under the terms spelt out in the UN Security Council resolution 1441, Baghdad is now using the interim period to try and avert a military attack by the US and British forces.
India, with its close ties with the US and traditional friendship with Iraq is an obvious stop for Hussain’s special envoy and Sahaf will undoubtedly ask India to strengthen its support for the Iraqi position and use its good offices with the US.
Having built close ties with Washington in the past few years, India is now viewed as a country with some degree of leverage with the US.
The Security Council itself is divided over the precise meaning of the UNSCR 1441 with China, France and Russia interpreting it to state that it "excludes any automaticity in the use of force", whereas the US has said that notwithstanding the outcome of any discussions in the Security Council on any adverse report by the weapons inspection team, the US would retain the right to use force in "self-defence".