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UN Should Consider Iraq's Just Demands: Editorial
The United Nations should take into consideration Iraq's demands in its upcoming talks with the country to lift the embargo and stop the aggressions by the United States and Britain, the official daily Ath-Thawra said Thursday.
In an editorial, Ath-Thawra, of the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, said "the success of the dialog depends on the extent of the international organization's readiness to understand the grievances which Iraq has subjected to."
Iraq has been under crippling UN sanctions since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the US and Britain have been enforcing no- fly zones over its northern and southern areas aimed at keeping President Saddam Hussein at bay.
The sweeping sanctions have caused great human sufferings to the Iraqi people. Ath-Thawra slammed the UN oil-for-food program, an exception to the sanctions, for its failure to meet Iraq's humanitarian needs. The program allows Iraq to sell oil in return for U.N.-monitored imports of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.
The editorial came amid reports that the scheduled talks between Iraq and the UN, aimed at breaking the impasse over stalled inspections of Baghdad's weapons, might be delayed from this month to February.
At an Islamic summit held in Qatari capital Doha last November, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, agreed to have a dialog without preconditions.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz has said that Iraq was ready to hold a comprehensive dialog with the UN and that the dialog must not be conditioned on that Iraq accepts the UN Resolution 1284.
The UN offered to suspend the embargo on Iraq if it shows full cooperation with the UN on arms inspections.
Iraq has rejected the resolution and barred the return of UN arms inspectors who left the country at the end of 1998, shortly before the US and Britain launched air strikes against Iraq.
The embargo on Iraq, triggered by its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, will not be lifted until UN arms inspectors certify that Iraq is clear of weapons of mass destruction.
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