Saddam Meets Resigning U.N. Relief Official for Iraq

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Sunday met Hans von Sponeck, the outgoing U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, reported the Iraqi News Agency (INA). During the meeting, Sponeck expressed his happiness to meet the Iraqi president and also his regret for not speaking Arabic, said INA.

Saddam said that it is all right because one can understand humanitarian language even without words, INA added. "Your stance is an expressing language," Saddam was quoted as saying. Von Sponeck said he resigned as the U.N. humanitarian program he heads has proven to be a failure, while the Iraqi president said that Sponeck has done something great for the Iraqi people. As the top U.N. relief official for Iraq, von Sponeck submitted his resignation to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month. Annan has accepted his resignation, which is to go into force at the end of this month.

The outspoken U.N. official has said that he resigned because he has lost hope of an improvement in Iraq's humanitarian situation. He has criticised that the decade-long U.N. sanctions on Iraq has resulted in a true humanitarian tragedy.

Von Sponeck, who was appointed to the post in October 1998, has angered the U.S. and Britain by saying that the U.N. Security Council should treat Iraq's humanitarian needs separately from the Council's aim to monitor Baghdad's disarmament.

He said the U.N. oil-for-food program has not met the minimum requirements of the 22 million Iraqi people.

Under the humanitarian program now in its seventh phase, Iraq is allowed to export a certain amount of oil in every six months to buy basic supplies for its people.

However, Iraq has long argued that this program has failed to alleviate the sufferings of the Iraqi people who have been reeling under the crippling U.N. sanctions imposed following Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

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