IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 141
Friday October 20, 2000
NEWS++++++LATEST+++++++
Oil prices: Market may be on its way back to September peak
>From MIDDLE EAST ECONOMIC DIGEST, October 20th, 2000
Oil prices were in mid-October threatening to return to their recent peaks
before the 24 September release of 30 million barrels of crude from US
strategic stocks. Prices rose by 10 per cent, or $3 a barrel, over the five
days to 11 October.
Falling US fuel stockpiles, forecasts of cold spells in North America and
rising tension in the Middle East were responsible for the price increases.
The international benchmark Brent price was approaching $33 a barrel on 11
October, just short of the peak of nearly $35 achieved in September. The
price of OPEC's basket of seven crudes rose above $30 a barrel on 10
October.
Traders said the main reason for the price rises was a fall in US crude and
product stocks. Weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute
(API) show an across-the-board fall, with especially large declines for
crude and middle distillates, which include winter heating oil.
Armenian `genocide` resolution pulled from US House floor
WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (AFP) - A draft US congressional resolution that
generated friction between the United States and Turkey was pulled from the
floor of the House of Representatives Thursday, after President Bill Clinton
intervened against it by citing national security concerns.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced his decision to withdraw from
consideration the so-called Armenian Genocide resolution after receiving a
letter from the White House, in which Clinton mentioned US "significant
interests" in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Balkans and the Gulf, which
require Ankara's cooperation.
"Consideration of the resolution at this sensitive time will not only
negatively affect those interests, but could undermine efforts to encourage
improved relations between Armenia and Turkey -- the very goal the
Resolution's sponsors seek to advance," the president wrote.
The draft had urged the president to show "appropriate understanding and
sensitivity" toward events in the Ottoman Empire eight decades ago, during
which, according to resolution sponsors, 1.5 Armenians were killed and
another 500,000 were driven from their homes.
Turkey disputes these figures and insists the events in the northeast of the
country between 1915 and 1923 cannot be qualified as genocide.
Turkish officials have made it clear that if the resolution passes, the
government would reevaluate its relations with the United States, including
access to southern Incirlik Air Base, currently used by US warplanes to
patrol the no-fly zone over northern Iraq.
IPU Passes Resolution on Lifting Sanction Against Iraq
JAKARTA (Oct. 20) XINHUA - The Committee on the Supplementary Item of
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) here Friday adopted a resolution on lifting
the U.N. economic embargo against Iraq.
The resolution, which was passed with 17 positive votes, 12 oppositions and
4 abstentions, said the economic embargo imposed on Iraq by the United
Nations has brought misery to the Iraqi innocent people, so it should be
removed.
The draft motion was proposed by the Iraqi Parliamentary delegation which is
attending the 104th IPU conference. Speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly,
Sa'adoon Hammadi said the economic and military sanction imposed on his
country did not reflect the international community's will, the interest of
some powerful countries that don't want to see the emerging of Iraq.
Meanwhile, the meeting also passed a resolution on financing for
development.
The resolution calls on all countries and institutions in the world to make
efforts to reduce poverty.
Iraqi foreign minister urges `jihad` to attain `full Arab rights`
Text of report by Iraqi radio on 19th October
Foreign Minister Muhammad Sa'id al-Sahhaf called on the Arabs to adopt the
jihad strategy. He told reporters after the opening session of the Arab
foreign ministers' meeting today: We should adopt a strategy to defend all
Arab rights. He added: From the Iraqi point of view, jihad will guarantee
the attainment of full Arab rights. He stressed: We call for jihad in
response to demands in the Arab nation, as demonstrated in all Arab states.
Iraqi military spokesman reports 19th October US-UK air sorties
Text of report by Iraqi TV on 19th October
At a time when the struggling Palestinian people are confronting the
oppressive Zionist measures in the occupied Arab areas and while the Arab
masses from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Gulf and even in the mountains
are waging an intifadah to support their Palestinian brothers in liberating
Palestine and the Islamic holy shrines from the desecrating Zionist
occupiers, the Saudi and Kuwaiti rulers continue to offer direct support for
US-UK planes to attack Iraq and cause more damage to its patient and
steadfast people.
In statements to the Iraqi News Agency, a military spokesman for the Air
Defence Command said: At 1150 [0850 gmt] today, 19th October 2000, US-UK
ravens violated our airspace coming from Saudi and Kuwaiti airspace with
direct backing from the Saudi and Kuwaiti regimes. The ravens conducted 22
hostile sorties from Saudi airspace and six sorties from Kuwait airspace.
They were backed by an AWACS from inside Saudi airspace. The ravens flew
over areas in the governorates of Basra, Dhi Qar, Al-Muthanna, Karbala,
Al-Najaf, Al-Qadisiyah and Maysan. Our valiant missile forces and courageous
ground defences countered the attackers and forced them to flee our airspace
back to the bases of evil and filth in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The spokesman added that the US-UK ravens of evil - with Turkish support and
the backing of an AWACS from Turkish airspace - violated our airspace at
1100 today. They conducted 18 hostile sorties and flew over areas in the
governorates of Dahuk and Arbil. Our heroic missile forces countered the
attackers and forced them to flee our airspace back to the bases of
aggression in Turkey.
With these attacks, the total number of sorties conducted by the ravens
since Conquest Day, 17th December 1998, and until today reaches 13,290 from
Saudi airspace and 7,236 from Kuwaiti airspace, while the overall number of
sorties conducted from Saudi, Kuwaiti and Turkish airspace reaches 25,718.
Rogues? Not any more: The doctrine of containment is dying
>From THE GUARDIAN, October 20th, 2000
Britain's decision to establish diplomatic ties with North Korea, while
welcome in itself, is another body blow for the US policy of containment of
so-called 'rogue states'. It stems from the sensible belief that dialogue
with problematic regimes, where possible, is preferable to isolation,
sanctions and military threats. Foreign secretary Robin Cook has
successfully used this approach, dubbed 'critical engagement', to improve
relations with Iran, Libya, Cuba and Sudan. Talking to, rather than shouting
at, North Korea increases the chances of persuading it to curb human rights
abuses and weapons proliferation. It opens up a seductive lifeline of
additional EU humanitarian aid and technical assistance for a woefully
misled people plagued by famine and underdevelopment. It is a timely boost
for the Korean peninsula peace process, which has stumbled since last June's
epic bilateral summit. And it will help buttress regional stability. As
such, Britain's move was welcomed yesterday by Seoul.
Even the US is tacitly beginning to recognise that its containment policy, a
cold war hangover, is simply not working. Washington no longer uses the term
'rogue states' to describe its perceived enemies; they are now 'countries of
con cern'. In the past year, it has warily followed Britain in pursuing
better relations with Iran and Libya. Last month, two years after being
blasted by cruise missiles, Afghanistan's Taliban were invited for coffee at
the state department. This week, congress finally (finally!) moved to ease
sanctions on Fidel Castro's Cuba. And this Sunday, secretary of state
Madeleine Albright will make her bow in Pyongyang, a possible prelude to a
legacy tour by Bill Clinton himself. To appreciate what a volte-face this
is, remember that only a few months ago the Pentagon was citing roguish
North Korea as the main justification for deploying a new Star Wars missile
defence system.
It is too much to hope that US diplomacy is at last turning pragmatical. Nor
are these shifts necessarily permanent: both Al Gore and George W Bush still
seem to think that superpower is invariably insuperable. But as they
constantly tell voters, it's good to talk. And out there, in the world
beyond the Potomac, the diplomatic apartheid known as containment is dead in
the water. If more proof is required, just look at Iraq. For all America's
great pains, Saddam is out of his box, big time; and short of massive, brute
force, there is little the US can do.
Iraq says common market on agenda for Arab summit
By BridgeNews
Cairo--Oct. 19--Iraq's Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan on Wednesday
stressed the importance of an Arab common market, which he said would be
discussed in the Arab summit to be held in Cairo Saturday, the Al Ahram
newspaper said Thursday. Only 13 Arab countries had previously agreed to
lower customs tariffs on goods, he said.
Iraq gives priority of trade deals to Arab countries, and is willing to
resume diplomatic relations with all countries in the world except Israel,
he said. Trade Minister Mohamed Mahdi Saleh announced that Egypt, Iraq and
Libya will form the nucleus of the Arab common market starting next year.
Iraqi MP tells parliamentarians Kuwaiti claims on POWs `baseless`
Text of report by Iraqi radio on 18th October
Dr Hamid Razzaq al-Musawi, National Assembly member and member of the Iraqi
delegation to the 104th Inter-Parliamentary Union [IPU] conference, has
refuted the claims of the Kuwaiti regime's representative, who said that
Iraq still has so-called Kuwaiti prisoners.
Al-Musawi was responding to the speech of the Kuwait regime's representative
at the conference, in which he claimed that so-called Kuwaiti prisoners are
in Iraq. Al-Musawi said the Kuwaiti representative's claims are untrue and
baseless. He said
bringing up this issue has political motivations.
The National Assembly member affirmed that the Kuwaiti regime is a direct
partner in the aggression against Iraq because it has
turned its lands into bases for US and UK planes to take off from in order
to bomb Iraq on a daily bases. Addressing the
conference, the Iraqi official expressed Iraq's readiness to receive a
committee formed by the IPU president for the purpose.
It is worth noting that Iraq had previously welcomed all initiatives, which
were rejected by the Kuwait regime itself.
Syrian Plane Flies to Iraq Again Without Notice
>From NEW YORK TIMES, October 19th, 2000
As part of a growing challenge by Arab countries to the sanctions against
Iraq, Syria flew a plane to Baghdad today for the third time in 10 days
without notifying the United Nations.
The flight was the 26th sent to the Iraqi capital by Arab nations since
France and Russia began disputing procedures last month for some of the
sanctions imposed by the United Nations against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait
in 1990.
France and Russia have been sympathetic to Iraq's quest to have the
sanctions lifted and have begun to question the procedures for the ban on
flights and whether there is a ban on passenger flights here.
Iraq symbolically reopened Saddam International Airport here on Aug. 17 for
the first time since 1990. This month, the United Arab Emirates, after
having notified the United Nations sanctions committee, was the first
Persian Gulf state to send an aircraft to Iraq. Planes have also been sent
from Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen, among others.
Bahrain and Egypt sent aid flights here on Tuesday. And today a Syrian
Boeing 727 carried a delegation from the secretariat of the Arab Agronomists
Union from Damascus, according to the Iraqi news agency. Aside from the
flights sent by Egypt and Syria, nearly all the countries gave the United
Nations advance notice and had their flights approved.
The United Nations sanctions committee is generally expected to discuss the
flights on Friday in the hope of working out new procedures. A resolution in
1990 on flight restrictions states that the committee has to be notified of
flights and the plane's cargo has to be inspected for banned goods.
In addition, because the United States and Britain enforce no-flight zones
over large areas of northern and southern Iraq, they want want details of
flight paths more than 24 hours in advance to ensure a plane's safety.
France and Russia have disputed the procedures. They say sanctions require
notification and have not responded to queries from the United States and
Britain, who say permission is also needed.
Russia has just filed papers with the committee for three flights, between
next week and Nov. 10, diplomats said.
Iraq sends 60 trucks of food, medicine to Palestinians
BAGHDAD, Oct 19 (AFP) -
Sanctions-hit Iraq dispatched 60 trucks of food and medicine to the
Palestinian territories Thursday, the Palestinian representative in Baghdad
told AFP.
Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Saleh waved off the convoy from Faluja, 50
kilometres (30 miles) west of the capital, for Jordan from where the goods
will be shipped to the Palestinians.
Palestinian representative Najah Abdel Rahman said the trucks were carrying
2,500 tonnes of flour, rice, sugar, oil and baby milk, all products Iraq has
strictly rationed to its own population since the 1991 Gulf war.
President Saddam Hussein said Tuesday the aid was "a commitment from Iraq
(to the Palestinians) because we are the same people sharing food and
medicines." Iraq has offered five million euros (4.2 million dollars) to the
relatives of those killed by Israel in the three weeks of clashes, and to
treat some of the wounded in its hopsitals.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the clashes.
Itar-Tass to open its bureau in Iraq.
MOSCOW, October 19 (Itar-Tass) - The Itar-Tass news agency will open its
bureau in Iraq. An agreement to this effect was reached by Itar-Tass general
director Vitaly Ignatenko and Iraqi Minister of Information and Culture
Abdel Khaleq Abdel Ghafour in Moscow on Thursday. The two sides agreed that
the news agency's delegation will visit Iraq to discuss concrete issues
related to the opening of the bureau in Baghdad.
Iraqi official says Baghdad committed to Arab antiterrorism agreement
Text of report by London-based newspaper 'Al-Sharq al-Awsat' on 19th October
Baghdad:
An Iraqi Culture and Information Ministry spokesman has reiterated that
Iraq is committed to the text of the Arab antiterrorism agreement and added
that "it rejects and condemns all hijackings" including the hijacking of the
Saudi plane last Saturday to Baghdad. He said that Iraq "used very
successful diplomatic means in ending the operation, arresting the
hijackers, and extending hospitality to the hostages".
In a statement to `Al-Sharq al-Awsat' the spokesman said that the Arab
agreement calls for repatriating the hijackers to the
country in which the hijacking took place. He added: "This however requires
some measures in which a third party may have
to intervene, given that there are no diplomatic relations between Iraq and
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
The spokesman said that the two Saudi hijackers are now "in custody" without
giving any details about the location where
they are being held, because this, he said comes, falls within the area of
competence of the security services. The Iraqi spokesman said that there is
an agreement between Iraq and Saudi Arabia with regard to the exchange and
extradition of criminals, but this was suspended when relations between the
two countries were broken off. He said: "Had there been relations, there
would have been no problem, and perhaps there would have been no hijacking."
Daily calls on Iraqi regime to expel Iranian opposition group
Text of report in English entitled "Terrorist MKO insults Tehran Times"
published by 'Tehran Times' web site on 19th October
Mojahed Radio, run by the Iraq-based terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq
Organization (MKO), on Tuesday [17th October] insulted the `Tehran Times'
for its editorial that had called on the Iraqi government to throw the MKO
terrorists out of that country
before these mercenaries get an opportunity to stab the Iraqi nation in the
back on the order of their American masters.
Gulf War Saudi pilot is in Iraqi jail, not dead: Saudi official
RIYADH, Oct 19 (AFP) - A Saudi pilot believed to have died in a 1991 Gulf
War plane crash is alive and in an Iraqi prison, the head of the Saudi
Arabian team hunting for the man said in an interview published Thursday.
"Saudi pilot Mohammad Nadera is alive and in an Iraqi prison," General Ateya
Abdel Hamid told Okaz newspaper.
"There is evidence that pilot Nadera is still alive," he said. "Some
prisoners of war have shown photos and video footage confirming his presence
in an Iraqi jail, and we have furnished this evidence to the International
Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC).
Iraqi and Saudi delegations, the latter led by the general, were to begin
Thursday preparing for a search in southern Iraq for the remains of the
pilot, the ICRC said.
The meeting would probably last several days and take place in the Saudi
border town of Ar'ar, said Beat Schweizer, ICRC head in Iraq.
An Iraqi official has said the search could start as soon as Saturday. It
was not clear whether that meeting will still take place.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq finally agreed to the operation in June but it has
been held up because of extreme summer temperatures in the desert where
Squadron Leader Mohammad Nadera's plane was shot down.
The crash site is 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the nearest inhabited area
and accessible only by land from the Saudi side of the border because the
Iraqi side is heavily mined, according to Iraqi sources.
The launch of the retrieval operation has been delayed pending agreement on
the arrangements ever since Baghdad announced in January that the plane
wreckage was found in 1997, six years after the war over Kuwait.
An Iraqi officer had buried the pilot, Iraq said.
Iraq convinced sanctions to be lifted by UN SC - minister.
MOSCOW, October 19 (Itar-Tass) - The sanctions imposed on Iraq 10 years ago
"exhausted themselves", Iraqi Minister of Information and Culture Abdel
Khaleq
Abdel Ghafour said.
The minister, who is currently in Moscow on a visit, told Itar-Tass on
Thursday that the Iraqi leadership has no "illusions that the sanctions will
be lifted under the U.N. Security Council's decision". This position was
taken in order to confront the United States. At the same time, Iraq is
expanding its relations with other countries. Air flights to Baghdad became
regular and this means the breakthrough of the blockade", the minister said.
Iraq attends first Arab summit in 10 years after urging jihad against Israel
BAGHDAD, Oct 19 (AFP) - Iraq will attend its first Middle East summit for a
decade in Cairo on Satrday amid a call to mobilise combatants for a jihad,
or holy war, on the Jewish state.
President Saddam Hussein, who has not left the country for security reasons
since the 1991 Gulf war, will be represented by his number two, Ezzat
Ibrahim, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
Ibrahim, a hardliner from the Revolutionary Command Council, arrived in
Cairo on Thursday, as the press reported that nearly four million people had
volunteered to join the jihad.
An Iraqi official offered assurances that Baghdad would not raise the thorny
issue of the decade-old UN sanctions that have crippled the country, even
though it regularly lashes out against Arab support for the embargo.
"Iraq wants the summit to be devoted to a single question -- Palestine, the
intifada and Jerusalem -- and nothing else," Salem al-Qabissi, chairman of
parliament's Arab and international affairs commission, told AFP.
Baghdad would block "the addition of any other question to the summit agenda
which would dissipate efforts and lead to disunity," he said.
The statement echoed that of Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf,
who said on arriving in Cairo Wednesday for the preparatory foreign
ministers' meeting that the summit should be "devoted heart and soul to
supporting the Palestinian struggle."
"We do not need to add other questions to the agenda which would disturb the
summit and turn it away from the situation in Palestine," Sahhaf said.
By not bringing up the issue of United Nations sanctions against Baghdad,
which have been in force since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which
caused a deep divide in Arab ranks, Iraq answered fears voiced notably by
the emirate.
Iraq's moderate tone follows a rush of flights in to Baghdad in recent weeks
by Arab countries in a challenge to an air embargo that had been maintained
alongside the overall sanctions regime for the past 10 years.
Two Gulf monarchies have been among those to send aid flights into Iraq,
breaking the nation's isolation and annoying Washington and London, which
insist on upholding the air embargo as part of efforts to ensure full and
verifiable disarmament of Saddam Hussein's war machine.
"Iraq has, on the one hand, shown its seriousness and, on the other, cut
off any attempt by Arab leaders to hijack the summit's central theme," an
Arab
diplomat told AFP.
Iraq, which presents itself as the champion of Arab and, particularly
Palestinian causes, will keep the pressure on other Arab countries by
insisting that the Cairo summit "meet the aspirations of the Arab peoples",
Qabissi said.
He was alluding to the outpouring of support across the Middle East for the
Palestinian uprising in the past three weeks.
"We hope the resolutions of the Arab summit will match the gravity of the
situation and the challenge of enemies," he added.
Baghdad was not invited to the last Arab summit in 1996 in the aftermath of
the Gulf war.
UN says only three Iraq flights not OK'd
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Only three recent flights to Iraq were
without authorization, a sanctions committee spokesman said Thursday,
despite several claims of contravening the Security Council air embargo. He
listed recent French and Russian trips and Wednesday's Syrian flight.
Humanitarian flights to Iraq more symbolic than useful: UN coordinator
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (AFP) - Flights sent to Iraq to test UN sanctions
have had minimal effect on the humanitarian situation in the country, the
United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, Tun Myat, said Thursday.
"They have given (Iraq) moral support rather than anything else," he told a
news conference.
Myat said the flights had carried only a "miniscule" amount of cargo
compared with the 150,000-200,000 tonnes of food and equipment which Iraq
imports "in an average month" under the UN's oil-for-food programme.
"These are huge quantities to feed a population of 23 million people," he
said.
Several dozen foreign aircraft have arrived in Iraq since mid-September,
when Russia and then France allowed oil company executives, athletes and
doctors to fly to Baghdad to test the UN's sanctions regime.
Myat recalled that "humanitarian flights per se have always been permitted"
since the UN Security Council imposed a trade embargo and other sanctions on
Iraq in August 1990 after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
"They have never been prohibited, provided the nature of the flight is
humanitarian, which means it has to carry food or medicine," he said.
The purpose of the flights was to challenge the view of the United States
and Britain that even humanitarian flights needed prior clearance from the
council's Iraqi sanctions committee, he said.
"The flights are symbolic," he added.
But Myat said he would like the UN to set up a team of professional
inspectors to check the cargoes of the flights.
"It is not my job to regulate what comes into Iraq," he said.
"I do
not enforce sanctions or have any part of them."
But, he said, it had become a practice to check flights "since there was no
other UN presence in town other than my office."
He added, however, that "in case of flights that are unannounced, we will
not be able to look at it. It would not be correct for us to be involved."
Iraq blamed for tension in Gulf
>From KUWAIT TIMES, October 19th, 2000
JAKARTA: Speaker of Kuwait's National Assembly Jassem Al-Khorafi on Tuesday
blamed the Iraqi regime for the tension prevailing in the Arabian Gulf
region due to the recurrent Iraqi threats to neighbouring nations.
Speaking at the 104th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) which
started on Sunday in the Indonesian capital, Al-Khorafi called for
safeguarding peace and respecting the legitimate authority of
different states, reserving them from military coups, helping poor nations
and rejecting the use of force in solving differences.
Ten years elapsed since the barbaric Iraqi aggression on the state of Kuwait
and tension is still prevailing in the region due to the recurrent Iraqi
practices that violate international customs, which
are based on rejecting aggression and refusing threats as a means to solve
differences between states, added Al-Khorafi.
He said he was confident that efforts deployed by the United Nations and
other friendly states will put an end to the suffering of more than 600
Kuwaiti and third country PoWs held in Iraq for more than ten years now.
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