IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 128
Friday September 28, 2000
LATEST++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jordan to become third nation in week to send passenger flight to Iraq
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) _ Jordan said it would send a plane carrying humanitarian
aid to Baghdad on Wednesday, becoming the third nation in a week flying
passengers to Iraq in an escalating challenge to U.N. sanctions.
The United States stepped up its protest against the unauthorized flights,
which it maintains violate the sweeping U.N. embargo on Baghdad that
followed Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told the U.S. Senate on Tuesday she
was ``very concerned'' about unapproved Russian and
French flights to Iraq in recent days. She was trying to persuade Jordan not
to follow suit, and said the United States could invoke a law that cuts off
assistance to countries that violate the U.N. embargo on Iraq.
Jordan plans to fly to Iraq on Wednesday whether or not it gets clearance
from the U.N. sanctions committee, a Jordanian government spokesman said
Tuesday. France and Russia sent planes to Iraq in the last few days without
waiting for clearance, maintaining that authorization is not required for
humanitarian or passenger
flights.
``Whether there is a response or not, the plane will leave tomorrow,''
Jordanian Culture Minister Mahmoud Kayed told The
Associated Press. ``We did our duty, informing the U.N. on the flight.''
But Jordan can ill afford to anger the United States, which gives the
impoverished nation dlrs 270 million a year in economic
and military assistance.
Jordanian government officials were tightlipped about the flight early
Wednesday. Staff at Amman's Queen Alia International Airport would not even
confirm that an aircraft was being prepared for a 75-minute flight to
Baghdad.
However, the Information Ministry invited reporters to go to the airport
for what it described as an ``event'' at 2:00 p.m. (1100 GMT) _ expected to
be the plane's departure. The sanctions committee gave its members until
1400 GMT Wednesday to raise any objections to the flight. If the flight
enters Iraq before that deadline, it could be seen as having done so without
U.N. approval. By late Tuesday, the United States had not made an objection.
The developments heightened a growing call by Iraq's supporters for lifting
the U.N. sanctions. Russia's state-controlled airline Aeroflot said Tuesday
it was negotiating with Iraq on resuming regular passenger flights to
Baghdad.
In Syria, Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa called for lifting the sanctions
after talks in Damascus, the Syrian capital, with
visiting Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
Critics of the U.N. embargo say it deprives the Iraqi people of desperately
needed medical help, food and other basic items.
The Jordanian government said its plane will carry government officials,
doctors and medical supplies, in a step it hopes will lead to a resumption
of passenger flights to its neighbor.
The U.N. sanctions committee procedures regarding flights are in deep
dispute. France and Russia say nations wishing to send humanitarian goods
into Iraq need only notify the committee of the intended flight, not receive
its approval.
The United States and Britain _ backed by the Dutch committee chairman _ say
committee members must signal their approval by not raising an objection to
the proposed flight within 24 hours. That
24-hour period would have ended Tuesday evening, but the committee extended
it to the new Wednesday deadline while consultations continued.
France's refusal to give the committee time to consider its flight last week
prompted the United States to accuse France of violating the sanctions. On
Monday, the United States asked that the committee send letters of inquiry
to the countries involved to determine what violations had occurred, a U.S.
official said.
Two other proposed flights are being considered by the committee: one from
Iceland and another from Russia to take off in the next few days. On Tuesday
night, the United States and Britain put ``holds'' on those flights pending
more information, said a spokesman from the Netherlands, which chairs the
sanctions committee.
POLITICS: 10-YEAR EMBARGO ON IRAQ THREATENS TO UNRAVEL
UNITED NATIONS, Sep. 26 (IPS) -- The 10-year-old U.N. embargo on Iraq,
which has devastated that country's economy and caused the deaths of
hundreds of children, is threatening to unravel.
France and Russia, two veto-wielding permanent members of the Security
Council, have challenged the embargo, arguing that it does not apply to
civilian flights carrying humanitarian aid.
Both Russian and French planes have, over the weekend, flown to Iraq
carrying not only doctors and medical supplies but also
business executives and athletes. But the United States and Britain, also
permanent members of the Council, insist that these flights are a violation
of the embargo which was imposed on Iraq just after it invaded Kuwait in
August 1990.
China, the fifth veto-wielding member of the Council, has expressed its
strong opposition to the continued sanctions on
Iraq, but has not given any indication of ferrying relief supplies to
Baghdad.
India, which has signed an economic cooperation agreement with Iraq, has
indicated it will probably follow the French and the Russians with its own
humanitarian flight into Baghdad. Jordan and Syria may be next in line. The
United States and Britain maintain that all flights into Iraq have to be
authorized by the U.N. Sanctions Committee which has, on previous occasions,
approved civilian flights, including flights out of Baghdad for the annual
pilgrimage to Mecca.
According to a news report from Baghdad, the Russians informed the committee
of its proposed flight but did not seek permission
to land in Iraq. The government of France, on the other hand, also notified
the committee but did not wait for approval.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters that the United States and
Britain had asked for a delay in the departure of the
flight from Paris "pending more information on the exact humanitarian nature
of the flight." But the plane departed Paris without having received the
committee's approval, Eckhard added.
Britain and the United States interpret this as a clear violation of the
embargo.
Addressing reporters at the United Nations two weeks ago, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright pointed out that it was very hard to figure out what
"humanitarian" means these days.
"The United States disagreed with those who wished to fly into Iraq," she
warned.
Early this year, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the humanitarian
crisis in Iraq -- where hundreds of children have
been dying of ill-health and malnutrition -- posed "a serious moral dilemma
for the United Nations."
"The U.N. has always been on the side of the vulnerable and the weak, and
has always sought to relieve suffering," he told
the Security Council, "Yet we are accused of causing suffering to an entire
population."
Annan said the United Nations was in danger of losing the argument or the
propaganda war -- "if we haven't already lost it"
-- about who is responsible for this situation. "Is it (Iraqi President)
Saddam Hussein or the United Nations?" he asked.
The Secretary-General said he was particularly concerned about the situation
of Iraqi children whose suffering and, in all too many cases, untimely
deaths, were documented in a report prepared by the U.N. Children's Fund
(UNICEF) and the Iraqi Health Ministry last year. "We cannot in all
conscience ignore such reports, and assume that they are wrong," he told the
Council.
Albright told reporters that the Iraqis will be pumping between $16 billion
and $20 billion worth of oil this year. "They were also importing 12,000
cases per month of scotch whiskey," she charged.
She said she was not sure if this was food or medicine, but it was proof
that there was plenty of money for Pres. Saddam Hussein to provide for his
people. "The elite was living very well," she added.
Albright said the United States would not agree to lift sanctions until Iraq
was relieved of all its weapons of mass destruction and deprived of the
military capability to produce such weapons in the future. "Saddam Hussein
was not invented. He had crossed an international boundary, invaded another
country, raped and pillaged and helped destroy the way that country
operated," she added.
"He had lied about the fact that he had weapons of mass destruction. He had
prevented the United Nations (arms)
inspectors from entering Iraq. He had refused to abide by the will of the
international community. This was not an issue that was based on her tenure.
It was one that was American policy," Albright asserted.
Speaking on behalf of the 15-member European Union (EU), French Foreign
Minister Hubert Vedrine told a U.N. news
conference early this month that France continued to believe that the U.N.
embargo on Iraq should be lifted. But action on this, he pointed out, should
be taken within the framework of Security Council resolutions which ensured
the security of countries neighboring Iraq.
"France believed that the sanctions had become primitive, outdated and
economically absurd," he added. However, that was not a view shared by all
15 countries of the
EU, and it appeared that Iraq was still not prepared to accept the
provisions of U.N. resolutions, he added.
Gulf states condemn threat: United stance against Iraq
>From KUWAIT TIMES, September 27th, 2000
RIYADH: Information ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states
condemned during their meeting here yesterday the threats launched by the
Iraqi regime against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on
Monday. During their 11th meeting held here, headed by the Saudi Information
Minister Dr Fuad Al-Farassi, the ministers referred to the persistence of
the Iraqi regime in ignoring international
resolutions and Iraq's rejection of the Arab and international initiatives
that aim at lifting the international economic embargo imposed on it in
order to reduce the sufferings of the Iraqi people.
The ministers of information asserted their adherence to the conformity of
the international media address as it reflects the official Gulf stance
towards various issues and problems facing their countries.
Following the conclusion of the meeting, the Kuwaiti Minister of
Information, Dr Saad Bin Teflah Al-Ajmi expressed to Kuwait News Agency his
satisfaction towards the stance of the GCC ministers of information
regarding the recent Iraqi threats.
Russia says it complied with UN requirements on Iraq flights
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (AFP) - Russia's ambassador to the United Nations,
Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia had complied with UN requirements on
notification when it sent a second flight to Baghdad at the weekend.
"Passengers flights are not prohibited by resolutions of the Security
Council," Lavrov told reporters.
"They only required notification of the committee of sanctions, and in our
ase notification was done well in advance."
The controversial flight embargo against Iraq was imposed after Iraqi
troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, launching the Gulf War.
The embargo is increasingly being challenged by countries that do not agree
with the United States and Britain on the need to maintain the sanctions.
A Russian airplane carrying a delegation of around 100 people landed
Saturday at Baghdad's international airport. The Russians, expected to
remain
in Iraq for three days, were led by oil executive Yuri Chafrannik.
Saturday's flight was the third Russian plane to land at Saddam
International Airport since it reopened August 17.
The first, on August 17, was not specifically authorized. Moscow "informed"
the sanctions committee of the travel plans, a Russian official said at the
time.
The second flight, on September 17, was a charter plane that carried a
delegation of Russian oil executives. That flight, too, did not await
official
approval from the sanctions committee.
The 15 members of the United Nations committee on sanctions against Iraq
met for two hours here Monday in an atmosphere fraught with tension.
The committee is profoundly divided over the legality of the flights.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reiterated Tuesday that, in the
opinion of the United States, UN authorization is required for such flights,
despite the absence of specific UN legislation on this point.
Iraq's ambassador Saeed Hassan said, "The Americans imposed their extreme
interpretation of the resolutions."
He added, "I think that there is a momentum in the Council and everywhere
that the actual regime of sanctions on Iraq could not stand anymore in all
its
aspects".
A French flight from Paris which reached Baghdad on September 22 carrying
75 passengers provoked an angry reaction from the United States.
A second French flight is set to defy the UN embargo by flying from Paris
to Baghdad with about 100 passengers, organisers told AFP on Tuesday.
The flight will leave Paris on Friday with France's former foreign minister
Claude Cheysson on board, according to its organizers -- a group of
individuals and non-governmental organisations.
Jordanian industry minister gives reasons for sending plane to Iraq
Text of live telephone interview with Jordanian Industry and Trade Minister
Wasif Azar in Amman by Jamil Azar in the studio;
broadcast by Qatari Al-Jazeera satellite TV on 26th September
[Jamil Azar] What is the importance of sending a plane to Iraq?Is the flight
meant to extend humanitarian aid or to carry a
certain message?
[Wasif Azar] The position on Iraq should be explained in a manner that is
clear to all. Iraq is Jordan's brother and neighbour. It is Jordan's main
economic partner. Therefore, Jordan's concern about the situation in Iraq
stems from this pan-Arab relationship on the one hand, and the economic
relationship on the other. The situation in Iraq is tragic as a result of
the unfair embargo imposed on it. This situation, particularly in the
medical field, makes it incumbent on all people concerned about humanitarian
issues to try to support and help our brothers in Iraq in order to face the
problem caused by the embargo.
Therefore, the Jordanian government studied the situation in Iraq and
decided to send a large medical delegation on a humanitarian flight. The
plane will leave Amman tomorrow
carrying quantities of medicine, particularly drugs needed by
Iraq for heart diseases, hypertension, cancer and diabetes. The situation in
Iraq made us, particularly the public and private medical sectors as well as
the popular and women sectors, extend this aid to Iraq so that Iraq will not
be kept away from modern medical information. Thus, the Iraqi citizens will
be able to receive treatment for diseases they cannot deal with under the
embargo.
[Q] Have you contacted other Arab countries? Do you expect Arab or US
opposition to this trip, as the United States did towards the Russian and
French planes?
[A] We expect the Arab countries to follow in Jordan's footsteps. Extending
aid to our brothers in Iraq should not be confined to foreigners. The
brothers should vie for the
extension of such aid. Jordan took all the necessary measures as demanded
internationally in order to conduct this trip.
Therefore, Jordan has not violated any decision and does not wish to do so.
It is only undertaking a humanitarian action to
support our brothers in Iraq. We expect our Arab brothers to extend all
forms of aid to the brothers in Iraq as we are doing.
In fact, this is not the first time Jordan sends a plane to Iraq. It
conducted a similar medical flight for Jordanian
physicians in 1998. A Royal Jordanian plane was also used by US medical
quarters to fly to Iraq. Therefore, we are doing this
within the humanitarian, national, and pan-Arab framework as well as the
national Jordanian interests that link us to our
brothers in Iraq.
Source: Al-Jazeera TV, Doha, in Arabic 2103 gmt 26 Sep 00
Jordanian athlete bows out of trip to Iraq to secure spot on Kuwaiti team
AMMAN, Sept 27 (AFP) - A member of Jordan's national basketball team
expected to join the first Arab flight to Baghdad on Wednesday excused
himself from the trip because he was about to secure a contract with a
Kuwaiti team.
Star basketballer Nasser Bassam, who was expected to play in a friendly
match with the Iraqi team on Thursday in Baghdad, told the Jordanian
federation at the last minute that he cannot go to Iraq, federation sources
said.
The federation decided not to press Bassam because he is currently
negotiating a contract with a Kuwaiti club, the sources said.
Kuwait had accused Jordan of backing Iraq in the 1991 Gulf war, when Amman
stayed out of an international US-led force to drive Iraqi troops from the
tiny Gulf emirate, which it invaded in August 1990.
But ties were back on course in March 1999, with Jordan reopening its
embassy in Kuwait City, and Kuwait reciprocating shortly afterward.
Also last September King Abdullah II visited Kuwait, becoming the first
Jordanian monarch to visit the tiny emirate since 1990.
Jordan, which depends totally on crude oil supplies from Iraq, its main
trading partner before the Gulf war, is sending a "solidarity flight" to
Iraq
later Wednesday with several cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and doctors
aboard.
The first will be the first by an Arab country following flights from
Russia and France despite an air embargo on Iraq.
Iraq Press: Saddam meant no threat to `stupid` Gulf leaders [B]
By Agence France-Presse Baghdad--Sept. 27--Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
meant no threat to the "stupid" leaders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia when he
warned of a confrontation, Iraq's leading newspaper said Wednesday. "Iraq
did not threaten the leaders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia but spelt out their
responsibility in the daily military aggression to which it is subjected
from their territory," said Babel, run by Saddam's eldest son, Uday.
* * * "Saddam Hussein reminded these stupid leaders that if they persist in
the aggression against Iraq, they will exhaust the patience of Iraqis,
increasing the pressure on the leadership (for a retaliation), which it does
not want." The Iraqi leader on Monday hit out at both Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia, accusing them of trying to provoke Baghdad.
"Iraq does not want confrontation with them, but they come to attack us in
our own home," the Iraqi president told his cabinet in a speech, referring
to US and British air strikes launched from Saudi and Kuwaiti bases.
Saddam said he hoped the people of the two Gulf Arab monarchies would tell
their governments: "You are putting the Iraqis into such a position that
they are forced to attack you." Kuwait said Tuesday it has taken "all
necessary precautions" in reaction to Saddam's speech, which also drew a
sharp warning from Washington.
"US forces, British forces--we are prepared to take whatever action is
necessary to make sure that he does not attack his neighbors or attack his
own people," US Defense Secretary William Cohen said.
Iraq's Aziz leaves Syria after brief visit
>From AFP ENGLISH, September 27th, 2000
DAMASCUS, Sept 27 (AFP) - Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, left
Syria Wednesday after a brief visit, an official said.
Aziz had held conversations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and
Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara.
Those talks centered on "bilateral relations and on Syrian efforts to put
an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people," the official said.
Following a meeting with Aziz on Tuesday, Shara called for the removal of
the United Nations embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990.
The Iraqi deputy prime minister, who is on his way to the OPEC meeting in
Venezuela, arrived in Damascus late Monday on an unannounced visit.
An Arab diplomatic source said Iraq and Syria wish to improve their
relations.
Baghdad notifies trade partners of shift to euro
By Abdul Jalil Mustafa, BridgeNews Amman--Sept. 27--Iraq has notified all
trade partners that future contracts with the Iraqi governments should be
denominated in the euro instead of the U.S. dollar, Trade Minister Mohammad
Mehdi Saleh announced Wednesday. In an interview with the Doha-based
Al-Jazira satellite TV channel, Saleh contended that Baghdad would not face
any difficulty in "pegging" its oil revenues to any currency other than the
greenback.
"We notified other states as of yesterday that our contracts with them
should be denominated in the euro," Saleh said. He was apparently alluding
to the deals, which Iraq used to conclude under the provisions of the U.N.
oil-for-aid program.
The Iraqi cabinet decided on Monday to quit the dollar and replace it with
the euro or any other reserve currency in external trade dealings. The
decision came in response to a recommendation to this effect by a panel of
Iraqi economists, who were earlier asked by President Saddam Hussein to
evaluate the feasibility of such a step.
"Iraq has decided to quit the dollar altogether because it is a currency of
an hostile, imperialist country which sought to assume hegemony on the
international economy," Saleh said.
Responding to a question, the Iraqi minister said that it would not be
difficult for Baghdad to have its oil revenues turned into the euro or any
other currency.
"It is true that oil is priced in the dollar at the world market, but Iraq
can peg its oil revenues to any other currency by asking that its crude
proceeds be deposited in its account in the euro," he said.
"Libya did the same thing and demanded its oil proceeds be paid in Deutsche
marks and the Swiss Franc when its was subjected to an embargo several years
ago," he added.
Under the oil-for-food plan launched in December 1996, Iraq has been allowed
by the U.N. Security Council to export the equivalent of $5.26 billion of
crude oil every six months.
Only about 40% of the proceeds are being used for financing the purchase of
badly needed food, medicine and other humanitarian goods, while the
remainder is allocated for compensating the victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion
of Kuwait and covering U.N. operations in the sanctions-hit Iraq.
Icelandic, Russian planes set to fly to Iraq in defiance of embargo
>From AFP ENGLISH, September 27th, 2000
BAGHDAD, Sept 27 (AFP) - Two planes from Iceland and Russia are to land in
Baghdad within 48 hours, in further defiance of the decade-old UN embargo
against Iraq, the official INA news agency reported Wednesday.
"Russia will send another plane to Baghdad in the coming two days, followed
by Iceland, before Friday's scheduled arrival of the second French plane,"
INA
said.
Both planes will stop over in Paris en route to Baghdad, the agency said
without specifying the passengers the planes would be carrying.
The controversial flight embargo against Iraq is increasingly being
challenged by countries that disagree with the United States and Britain on
the need to maintain the sanctions.
A Jordanian flight is due in the Iraqi capital later Wednesday, the first
from an Arab country in a decade.
A second French flight plans to fly from Paris to Baghdad on Friday with
about 100 passengers, including several well-known personalities.
The first flight between the two cities in a decade landed in Baghdad last
Friday carrying 75 passengers, provoking an angry reaction from the United
States.
Washington accused Paris of violating UN sanctions imposed on Baghdad after
Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, triggering the Gulf War of
January-February 1991.
The organisers of that flight described it as a non-commercial humanitarian
flight and therefore exempt from the terms of the embargo.
Russia last weekend also flew a plane into Baghdad, while India has said it
is planning to send one of its own.
MP to defy sanctions with flight to Iraq
>From The Daily Telegraph September 26th, 2000
By Anton La Guardia
Diplomatic Editor
THE backbench MP George Galloway will join a sanctions-defying flight to
Baghdad this week as an inter- national campaign to break down the embargo
gathers strength. "An embargo only works for as long as people are prepared
to
obey it," said Mr Galloway. "There is a sense that people are no longer
prepared to blockade Iraq in perpetuity."
Mr Galloway, who tried to organise a
protest flight earlier this year but was prevented by objections from the
United Nations sanctions committee, said he and the Labour peer Lord Rea
would
join a group of French anti-sanctions campaigners led by the former foreign
minister, Claude Cheysson. British celebrities such as the pop star Kirsty
MacColl and the radio presenter Andy Kershaw would also travel on the flight
from Paris on Friday, he added. The embargo on flights to Baghdad, in force
for
a decade, was breached last week by a Russian aircraft carrying oil
executives
as well as humanitarian supplies, and a French flight carrying doctors and
other anti-sanctions campaigners.
The Saudi-owned Arabic daily, al-Hayat,
reported yesterday that the French and Russian flights had carried doctors
to
treat President Saddam Hussein for suspected cancer. There was no
confirmation
of the claim. The UN Security Council is divided over the future of the
sanctions. France, Russia and China say resolutions do not ban commercial
air
flights to Baghdad, but Britain and America insist that they come under the
wider trade embargo. The Foreign Office said last night: "Any proposal for a
flight to Baghdad should be referred to the UN sanctions committee." Iraq
has
repeatedly rejected a Security Council offer to lift sanctions if weapons
inspectors are allowed to resume work.
Kuwait pushes dlrs 16-billion claim against Iraq before U.N. panel
GENEVA (AP) _ Kuwait appealed to a key U.N. panel Tuesday to overcome
differences between Russia and the United States and force Iraq to pay it
dlrs 15.9 billion in claims for the Gulf War torching of its oilfields.
``They represent losses that were witnessed by the whole world as a result
of Iraq's plan to destroy Kuwait by means of a scorched earth policy,''
Khaled Ahmad al-Mudaf, chairman of the board of the Kuwaiti compensation
authority, told the 15-nation U.N.
Compensation Commission.
Russia and France, among Iraq's allies on the U.N. Security Council, are
believed to have blocked the commission's approval of the payout to Kuwait
since last June as they have worked to ease decade-old sanctions against
Iraq.
Last week France told the Security Council that such an enormous sum would
be unconscionable at a time when oil companies were enjoying record high
prices and Iraqis were suffering from sanctions.
American officials declined to comment, but diplomatic sources who insisted
on no further identification said the United States was hoping for consensus
approval of the Kuwaiti claims before the panel adjourns its three-day
session Thursday.
However, diplomats noted that the panel, which meets behind closed doors,
was subject to the same differences over Iraq that have been tying up the
Security Council in New York.
The commission, created at the end of the 1991 war to
compensate victims of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, is made up of council
members.
Iraq dismissed Kuwait's claims as ``highly exaggerated'' and said approval
would damage the Iraqi people for ``generations to come.''
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