With all due respects to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, it must be said that he was not expected to make comments reminiscent of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
Press reports on Tuesday quoted him as saying that the government in Baghdad does not recognize the 1975 Algiers Accord with Iran. Almost 27 years ago, the former Ba’ath Party boss intoxicated with false pride had said “The 1975 accord between Iran and Iraq over the Arvand River (Shatt al-Arab) is invalid because the Iranian monarchy has been overthrown.“
Soon he sent his tanks rolling across the border, into the newly born Islamic Republic and imposed a war on our country that lasted eight years and filled an estimated one million graves on both sides. The bloody fighting, in which Saddam’s army resorted also to poison gas, wounded an equal number.
The only difference between the reasons cited by Mr. Talabani and Saddam is that the present leader of Iraq has justified his position for rejecting the key accord on the demise of the former brutal regime.
Iraq’s respected president is aware that thousands of Iranians were martyred for that colossal error of justice on the part of Saddam. There is little doubt that had Saddam not torn the internationally-valid agreement in front of TV cameras, the two neighboring countries would not have to fight the protracted military conflict.
The Iranian nation prevailed albeit at prohibitive cost. Despite the high stakes and unreserved western support for Saddam’s tyranny and lawlessness, we defended our sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Today Iran and Iranians are true friends of Iraq and have gone out of their way to help the neighboring country overcome its grave economic and political problems for the past four years.
Mr. Talabani was a guest of the Iranian people during Saddam’s rule and directed his opposition affairs from Tehran. Iran was the first country to recognize the post-Saddam government, and as a matter of policy has done all within its reach to assist the political process in that country.
Given the understanding and close interaction between our two countries, it is shocking to hear unacceptable and unhelpful comments coming out from Baghdad and its leader questioning the instruments of international agreements.
As a lawyer, Mr. Talabani is not unaware that international treaties, particularly those delineating borders and defining border disputes, do not expire with time or regime change.
Under international norms, a government cannot unilaterally abrogate a previously ratified treaty unless and until such option is enshrined in the document.
Algiers mentions nothing to this effect.
It must be added that if one goes by the liberty to pick and choose treaties or part(s) of it, Iraqi frontiers in its entirety must be redrawn because they were finalized by regimes that now belong to history. By the same token, the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk should be returned to Turkish control!
The bottom line is that Saddam by tearing the Algiers Accord brought himself and his nation to ruin the consequences of which (three major wars) will affect generations of Iraqis.
President Talabani is a senior statesman and a prominent politician. Conventional wisdom has it that he cannot and will not allow Baghdad to repeat the mistakes of the past, and will always have the larger interests of his oppressed people in mind.