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Iraq Urges Arab, Islamic States to Reject "Smart Sanctions"
An official Iraqi newspaper on Thursday urged Arab and Islamic countries to reject the so-called "smart sanctions" as proposed by the United States.
In its editorial, Ath-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, said that countries worldwide have suffered heavily due to the decade-old sanctions against Iraq, and it is not in their interest to keep in place the sanctions no matter whether such sanctions were smart or not.
The "smart sanctions" designed by the US"aims to strengthen the embargo imposed on Iraq for more than 10 years and is a plan to avoid the world criticism and get rid of its responsibility in genociding the Iraqi people," the editorial said.
Iraq says that the sanctions, imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, have claimed nearly 1.5 million lives, mostly children and the elderly.
In an earlier editorial, the newspaper warned its neighbors that Iraq would regard the implementation of the "smart sanctions" as an act of hostility.
"It is our right to consider such a measure as a hostile act as well as being immoral and inhuman," it said.
Earlier in the week, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Foreign Minister Tareq Aziz warned that Iraq would halt oil exports to Jordan and Turkey if they support the "smart sanctions."
Fearful of waning international support for the sweeping sanctions, the US said that it wanted to fine-tune the sanctions -- relaxing restrictions on goods imports for civilians while tightening import control on military equipment.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had said that a new package of sanctions against Iraq would be ready in June and the US had gained support from its Arab friends in the region.
The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss the US-proposed "smart sanctions" at the end of this month.
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