Global Policy Forum

By Martin Fletcher and Michael Theodoulou

Although Iraq has agreed to withdraw its forces from the northern city of Dahuk, America made clear yesterday that it would never permit United Nations sanctions to be lifted while President Saddam Hussein remained in power. James Baker, the American Secretary of State, declared that as long as Saddam continued to hold the reins, Washington would not normalise relations with Iraq, and would stop Baghdad from participating in new Middle East security and economic arrangements.

In testimony on Capitol Hill, Mr Baker delivered the Bush administration's strongest statement yet that Saddam must go, one that exceeded the terms of the UN ceasefire resolution and made thoroughly explicit an objective that America always repudiated during the course of the Gulf war.

Mr Baker labelled the Iraqi leader ''a pariah whose actions put him beyond the pale of civilised international society'', and said that ''without equivocation or doubt Saddam Hussein himself is the single greatest obstacle to any hope for the future of the people of Iraq, whether in terms of their own development as a society or in terms of their reintegration into the international community''. So long as Saddam remained in power, America could never have genuine peace with Iraq. He could not be trusted. ''Left alone, free to reconsolidate his brutal dictatorship and military machine, we know that he will act again to brutalise his own people and to threaten his neighbours. Without constant international monitoring of and pressure against this leader, this Iraqi government will continue to pose a danger.''

The Secretary of State's attack on Saddam came as Iraq agreed to withdraw its military and police forces from Dahuk, allowing Western forces to enter the city that was once home to most of the Kurds that fled to Turkey. An American spokesman at the Incirlik airbase in Turkey said a ''small element of coalition forces'' would enter Dahuk tomorrow. Persuading residents to return is seen as vital to the success of the allies' plan for safe havens.

Lieutenant-General John Shalikashvili, apparently reluctant to humiliate the Iraqi leader, did not say what had finally persuaded Saddam to agree to allow Western forces into Dahuk, one of his important provincial capitals. It is unlikely, though possible, that the US commander had to resort to crude threats of force when the most potent lever against Baghdad in recent weeks has been the threat of continued economic sanctions.

By complying with allied wishes, the Iraqi leader will hope that the United States will be less inclined to use its veto to block Iraqi oil exports when the United Nations sanctions committee next meets. That hope could be in vain given President Bush's determination to remove the Iraqi leader from power.

As the Dahuk breakthrough emerged, allied forces who went into the Kurdish region to protect the refugees from Iraqi troops found themselves having to rescue one of Saddam's generals from a mob in the northern town of Zakho, the US military said yesterday. The attack, the latest of several such incidents that underline the difficulty in maintaining law and order in the havens, came on Tuesday night when Brigadier-General Nushwan Danoun was leaving his headquarters at Zakho police station.

Hundreds of Kurds, wielding sticks and pipes, pushed past some 18 US military police to attack General Danoun. The US military police fired warning shots into the air, allowing the general to escape.

The United States defence department also gave details yesterday of a mysterious incident on Tuesday night when an American navy command ship in the central Gulf was fired on by two small unidentified gunboats. The American ship, La Salle, was not damaged and there were no injuries. The attacking vessels ''fled north at a high rate of speed'' when La Salle returned fire, but there were no other details.