Arab Countries Freeze 1.8-Billion-Dollar Iraqi Assets: MinisterIraq's total assets frozen by Arab countries from August 1990 to March 31 2001 amounted to more than 1.8 billion US dollars, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported Saturday.The INA quoted Iraqi Minister of Finance Hikmet Mizban Ibrahim as saying that Saudi Arabia topped the list with 652.7 million dollars, Syria ranked the second with 499.8 million dollars, followed by Bahrain with 359.8 million dollars; Kuwait, 213.1 million dollars; Somalia, 97.6 million dollars; the United Arab Emirates, 18.7 million dollars; and Egypt, 2.7 million dollars. Iraq has repeatedly demanded the concerned Arab countries to return the assets frozen after the United Nations imposed punitive sanctions against it for its invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. The sanctions will not be lifted until U.N. arms inspectors certify that Iraq is free from weapons of mass destruction. |
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