Iraq Seeks Compensation from Countries Engaged in AggressionIraq on Monday called for a review of the compensation regime in the light of international law and for the acknowledgment of Iraq's right to claim compensation from the countries engaged in aggression against it.In a letter to the United Nations Security Council, Said Al-Sahaf, minister for foreign affairs of Iraq, said the daily and brutal aggression of the United States and the United Kingdom had maintained for 10 years without having had any basis in any Security Council resolutions, whose aircraft carry out raids on Iraqi territory every day. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey provide these aircraft with logistic support and with every facility for their daily aggression against Iraq, Al-Sahaf said. The five countries involved in the aggression against Iraq are clearly violating the Charter of the United Nations, and according to the norms of international law, they are key accomplices in this aggression and they thus bear full international responsibility, Al-Sahaf said. All five of these countries are liable for all the damage they have done and continue to do to Iraq's people and to public and private property in the country, and they will have to pay appropriate compensation, in material and moral terms, for such damage, the foreign minister said. The foreign minister said Iraq's right to claim compensation from these countries for all the damage it has sustained as a result of their aggression should be acknowledged. In view of the fact that the establishment of the two no-fly zones in Iraq was an illegal act on the part of United States and the United Kingdom and has no basis in the Charter of the United Nations or in international law, both duty and legal responsibility require the Security Council to adopt a resolution condemning the action, he added. |
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