Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, said Baghdad was ready to apologise for invading Kuwait in 1990.
"If all of us (Arabs) apologised for the mistakes that we have committed against each other, then we are ready to apologise," Mr Aziz told An-Nahar newspaper in an interview published at the weekend. "We have recognised Kuwait's borders and statehood . . . so why not open a new page?" he said. "If Iraq is required to apologise for some incident for a new start, then that should be within a fair and collective apology and we are ready to apologise," Mr Aziz said. "We want Arabs to condemn the US strikes on Iraq and decide that sanctions should be lifted. We want Arabs to decide to eliminate the sanctions and not ask the UN to do so."
Iraq's parliament will resume a debate tomorrow on whether the country should continue to recognise Kuwait and the demarcation of borders between the two states, a senior MP said yesterday.
"The National Assembly will hold an extraordinary session to debate a number of issues, among them Iraq's recognition of Kuwait and borders between the two countries," said Mr Khalid alDouri, head of the parliament's Arab and Foreign Relations Committee.
Earlier this month, parliament shrugged off calls by some MPs to withdraw recognition of Kuwait, whose 1990 invasion by Iraq led to the 1991 Gulf War, and of the border demarcation. Instead, the assembly issued a mild statement in response to last month's US-led air strikes on Iraq.
Mr Douri said Iraq had met its commitments towards Kuwait but the emirate had not met its obligations toward Baghdad.
"Kuwait is continuing to commit aggression against Iraq. Therefore, why should we unilaterally stick to our commitments?" Mr Douri said.
Baghdad said Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had in effect taken part in last month's air strikes because they allowed Western aircraft to use their territory.
In 1994 the parliament voted to recognise Kuwait with its UN-defined borders, meeting one of the 1991 Gulf War ceasefire terms which Baghdad had accepted after its forces were driven from Kuwait in February 1991.
Mr Douri said Iraq was promised that sanctions would be lifted if it recognised the emirate, but that had not happened yet.
Yesterday, a US F-15 fighter attacked an Iraqi missile installation in the northern no-fly zone, the second straight day of US action against Iraqi forces, the Pentagon said. A spokesman said the F-15 fired in self-defence after aircraft enforcing the no-fly zone were tracked by Iraqi radar from the ground. There was no damage to US planes in the incident, he said.
Yesterday's incident was the ninth clash in the Western-declared no-fly zones since Operation Desert Fox in December. On Saturday, two US F-18 warplanes attacked a missile site in southern Iraq after Iraqi MIGs violated no-fly zones.