Talks With UN Should Respect Iraq's PrinciplesThe upcoming talks between Iraq and the United Nations next month should respect Iraq's principles, a report carried by the official daily Al-Iraq said on Friday.Under the four principles, the talks with the UN should be aimed at lifting the decade-old UN sanctions; the UN should recognize the "great" efforts Iraq has made in implementing the UN resolutions on the Iraqi issue; Iraq should be allowed to freely use its natural resources and no country can be allowed to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs. Iraq is ready to have "constructive" talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan or any UN organizations, the report said, stressing that the talks should respect the principles put forward by the Iraqi government. Annan has expressed that the hope that the upcoming talks between UN and Iraq will be able to break the impasse over weapons inspection in the country. At a year-end press conference at the UN headquarters in New York on December 19, the UN chief said he and Iraqi officials planned to begin talks in New York in early January as the Iraqi issue remained a challenge for the world's leading body. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz has said that Iraq was ready to hold "a comprehensive dialog" with the UN with no preconditions and that the dialog must not be conditioned on that Iraq accepts the UN Resolution 1284. The UN resolution, adopted last December, offered to suspend the sanctions for renewable periods of 120 days if Iraq shows "full" cooperation with the UN arms inspectors. Iraq has rejected the resolution and barred the return of the UN arms inspectors who left the country at the end of 1998 shortly before the United States and Britain launched air strikes against Iraq. Iraq has been under UN sanctions ever since it invaded Kuwait in 1990, and the sanctions will not be lifted until the UN arms inspectors report that Iraq is clear of weapons of mass destruction. |
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