May 2, 1999
Web posted at: 2:47 p.m. EDT (1847 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) -- Iraq's most influential newspaper urged Iran on Sunday not to normalize relations with the United States and said Tehran should instead resume normal ties with Baghdad.

Babel, owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday, also accused Iran of building up stockpiles of it said were aimed at other countries in the region.

"(Iran) is determined to build a large military arsenal and starts to declare its military abilities publicly in a clear message," the paper said.

"Iran's (expansionist) goals have been and are still known to everybody, whether during the rules of (the late) Shah, (the late Ayatollah) Khomeini...or (Iran's current president Mohammed) Khatami," Babel said.

"So Iran's interest lies at the states of the region and particularly at Iraq, with whom Tehran should normalize its ties," it added.

The United States recently decided to lift sanctions on the export of food to Iran, Libya and the Sudan.

Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, and deep suspicions between the two countries remain.

Iraq says Iran still holds around 20,000 prisoners of war from the conflict. It also accuses Iran of intervention in the feuding between Kurdish factions of northern Iraq, and it is still seeking the return of planes it flew to Iran for safe keeping during the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraq also hosts military cadres of the Mujahideen-el Khalq, opponents of Iran's religious rulers. Iran provides shelter to a group of Shi'ite Moslems who oppose the Baghdad government.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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