Open Meeting on Iraq Continues With Views Further Diversified

The U.N. Security Council open meeting on Iraq and Kuwait went into its third-day session Thursday, at which representatives from countries concerned expressed divergent views on how to proceed with proposed changes to the sanctions regime against Iraq.

Hussein Hassouna, representative of the League of Arab States, leads the group of opinions urging the lifting of sanctions against Iraq and respect for Iraq's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.

"The situation in Iraq has reached a stage requiring us to face it in an urgent manner, and that is precisely what the international community in general and the Arab world in particular are expecting," he said.

Calling for an early lifting of sanctions against Iraq, he stressed, "Such situation cannot continue. We should tackle it in order to ensure the ending of the suffering of Iraqi people."

He called on world leaders, in accordance with the U.N. Charter and the principles of the Arab states, to respect the independence and sovereignty of Iraq, saying Iraq's safety should not be threatened.

While calling on Iraq to put an end to its development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), he said double standard should be avoided to make the Middle East an area free of all kinds of WMD, "that of course includes nuclear weapons owned by Israel."

His voice was echoed by representatives from Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Syrian Arab Republic, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Turkey and India.

Kamalesh Sharma, ambassador of India, said in his statement that India has always opposed sanctions that have a humanitarian impact. "The sanctions imposed on Iraq are unjust, unwise and detrimental to large numbers of innocent Iraqi men, women and children," he said.

He opened fire on the so-called "No Fly Zone" imposed by the United States and Britain after the 1990-1991 Gulf War. "(No Fly Zones) are not approved by any aspect of the council's resolution. We have always disapproved of unilateral armed action against Iraq, which will undermine Iraq's territorial integrity and could have unforeseeable and destructive geopolitical implications for the region," he noted.

Expressing deep concerns over the sanctions' negative impact on Iraq's neighboring countries, Turkish Ambassador Umit Pamir said in his statement that his country stands to be one of the foremost countries on which the sanctions against Iraq have impacted heavily.

"In short, our view of the future is clear. We are now faced with the critical necessity to alleviate the humanitarian situation in Iraq and to relieve the bordering countries of the disproportionate economic and social burden they have been shouldering all these years," he said.

Representative of the Netherlands Van Den Berg, whose country is expecting the forthcoming European Union (EU) presidency, made a statement on behalf of the EU calling on the council to conclude the efforts to introduce the necessary improvements in the sanctions with regard to Iraq.

"The government of Iraq must comply with and implement the relevant Security Council resolutions," he said, adding that once Iraq has complied, sanctions should be lifted.

"Despite the attitude of the government of Iraq, the council itself must continue to do what it can to ease the plight of the people of Iraq," he said.

"We understand that setting up a new regime is a very complicated task. The new system will inevitably imply a trade off between the length of the list and the manageability just as it will be a trade off between preventing the unwanted access of Iraq to military equipment and the fate of Iraqi people," he said.

Representatives from Germany, Italy, Spain, and Austria voiced their support for the EU statement.

As the last speaker, Deputy Foreign Minister of Iraq Riadh Al Qaisi said his country has fully complied with the Security Council's resolution.

"I wish to reaffirm that the obligations imposed on Iraq... were extremely harsh and have gone beyond the customary legal limits required to restore international peace and security," he said.

"In spite of this, Iraq has implemented all the obligations in relevant Security Council resolutions," he stressed.

The open meeting, held one week before the current phase of the United Nations humanitarian program for Iraq is set to expire, has drawn wide attention from both inside and outside the council.

According to a U.N. spokesman, following Thursday's open meeting, the Security Council is scheduled to continue its consultations on the "oil-for-food" program at a closed session.

On June 1, the council extended the current phase of the "oil- for-food" program until July 3, and expressed its intention to agree on changes to the current sanctions regime, which has been in place against Baghdad since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Iraq Program, which oversees the implementation of the "oil-for-food" scheme, reported that for the third consecutive week in a row, there were no Iraqi petroleum exports.






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