Russian envoy’s final bid to defuse Gulf crisis

CAIRO, January 27: Russia today sent an envoy to Iraq in a last ditch attempt to defuse the latest crisis over United Nations arms inspections diplomatically even as Baghdad warned that any attack by Washington would “backfire in a way that cannot be imagined”.

Russain President Boris Yeltsin despatched Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Posuvalyuk with a personal message to the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to help find a solution to the standoff between Baghdad and UN weapons inspectors over access to Iraqi presidential palaces and other sites.

Posuvalyuk told the Iraqi News Agency that Yeltsin had asked him to “use all diplomatic and political means to find a way out” of the crisis.

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Meanwhile, an Iraqi daily owned by Saddam Hussein’s son Uday, today warned the United States that any attack by Washington would “backfire” in a way that could not be imagined, even as the US assembled a powerful naval force in the Gulf.

Another daily, Al-Qadissiya, said Iraq’s victory was certain and a defeat for the US was definite in case of a military confrontation.