Resolved to take a more active role in the Gulf crisis, India is expected to unveil a major diplomatic and humanitarian initiative in Iraq in the coming week. It is understood that New Delhi is firming up plans to supply some two million tonnes of wheat to Baghdad under the World Food Programme (WFP) and grant Rs 100 crore to the UN’s restarted ‘Oil for Food’ programme for providing humanitarian relief to the war-ravaged people of Iraq. As a part of the diplomatic initiative, South Block is thinking in terms of holding consultations with Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Qatar and Turkey on the on-going conflict as well as the Iraqi political scenario in the post-war period. Besides talking to Iraq’s neighbours, India has concurrent plans to engage the permanent members of the Security Council such as Russia, France, United Kingdom and the US in order to discuss the overall Iraq situation. The diplomatic effort has already begun with Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal holding talks in Moscow on the sidelines of the Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on Afghanistan this week. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, after meeting Sibal, said that both New Delhi and Moscow shared a common stand on the issue of political settlement on Iraq. It seems that the decision for proactive diplomatic engagement was taken after countries such as Iran and Syria expressed apprehension over US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s remarks that US Central Command Commander Tommy Franks would be the interim head of the Iraqi administration post-Saddam Hussein. Iraq’s neighbours have conveyed to New Delhi about the lack of efforts on part of the US to consult them on the political future of the war-ravaged nation. The feeling is that unlike the Afghanistan campaign — where the US consulted the neighbouring countries including India on the political situation — Washington and London are playing cards close to their chest in the post-war regime in Iraq and the reconstruction efforts. It is learnt that while External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha is keen on the appointment of a special envoy to handle the post-war political situation, the general feeling is that the envoy should not be a retired bureaucrat but somebody well-versed with the Iraq situation. While it may be early days for a special envoy to be appointed, New Delhi is apparently moving fast to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. Apparently, the Indian humanitarian relief plan got underway as soon as UN Security Council gave a green signal to restart the ‘Oil for Food’ Programme for Iraq on Friday. Out of the $8 billion collected by the UN under the programme, the Security Council has given permission to ‘‘adapt’’ some $1.4 billion for humanitarian relief. Secretary General Kofi Annan has also asked members for a parallel assistance of $2.2 billion. It is understood that the Indian aid of $20 million will be part of the parallel assistance. While the two million tonnes of wheat will be given to WFP for distribution in Iraq, the financial aid will be both in cash and kind. India has plans to send among other things tent material, life-saving drugs, diesel engines and water pumps. It seems that Sinha was keen to send a medical team after the recent heavy bombing by the US-led coalition in Iraq but was discouraged by the fact that the UN was out of the picture. Now with the stage set for UN involvement, India does not want to lose out on the opportunity to help the Iraqis.
