Tehran Times:
Farrakhan in Iraq Hopes to Stave Off U.S. Strike


BAGHDAD -- U.S. Black leader Louis Farrakhan arrived in Baghdad late on
Friday saying he hoped to prevent a U.S. war against Iraq and hold talks
with President Saddam Hussein.

"Our purpose here to see the people of Iraq, hopefully the leadership and
to see what we can do to possibly stop a war," Farrakhan told reporters at
Saddam Airport.

"I don't know that I will meet with President Saddam Hussein. It is my hope
to do so," the leader of the Nation of Islam Movement said.

Condemned as an anti-Semite in the United States, Farrakhan was barred from
Britain in 1986 because the government said he expressed racist views,
Reuters reported.

Farrakhan said he would spend only 48 hours in Iraq and hoped he would "do
as much as we can in that short period of time".

It was not clear whether Farrakhan in his third visit to Iraq since the
1991 Gulf War would mediate with Iraqi leaders on the return of UN weapons
inspectors to Baghdad -- an issue Washington wants to use as a pretext for
a military campaign.

"I bring a message from the people I represent and I hope it would be a
message from the (U.S.) government," he said when asked if he carried a
message from the U.S. administration.

Iraq and the United Nations failed on Friday to reach an agreement to
resume weapons inspections after intensive talks involving Secretary
General Kofi Annan and Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.

Farrakhan visited Iraq in 1996 and 1997 and met Saddam during the two
trips. He denounced Washington's "wicked" policy toward Baghdad that he
said was leading to the "mass murder" of the Iraqi people.

Farrakhan has led the Chicago-based African-American Muslim group since the
late 1970s. He stirred controversy in 2000 when he suggested Jewish vice-
presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman was more loyal to Israel than the
United States.

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