Over 2,300 Contracts Blocked by U.S., Britain: Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 17, 2002

Over 2,300 Contracts Blocked by U.S., Britain: Iraq

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Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah said on Wednesday that a total of 2,361 humanitarian contracts, with a value of 7.231 billion U.S. dollars, have been put on hold by the representatives of the United States and Britain at the United Nations Sanctions Committee.

In a statement to the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), Salah said the suspended contracts cover Iraq's vital sectors such as oil, medicine, food products, electricity and agriculture.

Salah said the behaviour of the U.S. and British representatives reflects the "hostile stance" of their governments toward the Iraqi people. He reiterated Iraq's call for immediately lifting of the sanctions.

Iraq has been under sweeping sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. As an exception to the sanctions, the U.N. oil-for-food program since 1996 allows Iraq to sell oil and use part of the revenues to buy food, medicine and other essentials to offset the impact on the Iraqi people.

Iraq has often complained that a large number of contracts signed with other countries under the humanitarian program are shelved by the U.S. and Britain. Baghdad also blasts the program for failing to alleviate the suffering of the sanctions-hit Iraqis.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said last November that the program had only met 10 percent of Iraq's humanitarian needs.

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