Iraq Rejects Return of U.N. InspectorsIraq on Wednesday repeated its rejection to the United Nations Resolution 1284 and vowed not to allow the U.N. arms inspectors back, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.In a speech delivered at the National Assembly (parliament), Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz rejected any cooperation with the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC). "Iraq's stand is constant and will never change," Aziz said. The latest refusal to the U.N. resolution came after a report saying that the UNMOVIC would be ready to start preliminary arms inspection work this month. Hans Blix, head of the UNMOVIC, said in June that preliminary investigations could be done "towards the end of August." Blix pointed out, however, that "Baghdad's public position is that they reject the Resolution 1284." Iraq has repeatedly rejected the resolution, claiming that it aims at prolonging the U.N. sanctions on Iraq or keeping Iraq's oil "under the colonial control" of the United States and Britain. In an interview with the official Jumhuriya newspaper on July 16, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said that the U.N. resolution was "unacceptable." "This resolution aims at making our country a U.S.-British protectorate. We totally reject the resolution," he said. The UNMOVIC was set up by the U.N. following the adoption of the U.N. resolution in December last year. Iraq has insisted that the total lifting of the U.N. sanctions is the precondition for the return of the U.N. arms inspectors. Iraq has been under crippling U.N. sanctions ever since it invaded Kuwait in August 1990. |
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