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Russia Renews Call for Lifting of Sanctions on Iraq
Russia on Tuesday reiterated a call for the lifting of the decade-old United Nations sanctions on Iraq and urged the United States and Britain to cancel no-fly zones over Iraq.
"It is time to lift the sanctions and end the sufferings of the Iraqi people," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said here at a press conference.
Russia has lost "tens of billions of US dollars" as a result of the sanctions, Ivanov added.
The UN Security Council imposed the economic embargo on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Ivanov, meanwhile, slammed the two no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq as "illegal" and urged the US and Britain to stop patrolling Iraqi airspace and bombing its targets.
As permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US and Britain "should not do anything against the international law," he said.
The western allies set up the no-fly zones after the 1991 Gulf War to allegedly protect the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi troops.
Ivanov said Russia is keen to promote relations and cooperation with Iraq.
During his talks with President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday, both sides voiced readiness to strengthen bilateral relations and find a solution to the stalemate between Iraq and the UN, he added.
Iraq suspended cooperation with the UN in arms inspections after the US and Britain launched air strikes against it in December 1998. The UN weapons inspectors have since been barred from entering the country.
Under relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the crippling economic sanctions on Iraq can not be lifted until the UN arms inspectors certify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.
Ivanov ended a two-day visit to Iraq on Tuesday, the first by a Russian foreign minister since 1994. Iraq was part of Ivanov's Middle East tour, which will also take him to Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Kuwait.
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