IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 151 Tuesday, November 7, 2000 LATEST NEWS++++++++++++++++++++ Crude Rises Amid Iraqi-Export Reports. NEW YORK - Crude-oil prices rose on reports that Iraq had halted its exports from Turkey's Ceyhan port for 12 to 24 hours. December crude shot up 54 cents to $33.40 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange, their highest level in two weeks. Heating-oil prices also vaulted, getting an extra lift from weather forecasts of significantly colder-than-normal temperatures in the Midwest, Northeast, and most of the U.S. during the second half of November, analysts said. A cold snap last winter triggered heating-oil price spikes and led to the creation of a two-million-barrel Northeast reserve. Meanwhile, individuals at the United Nations said Iraq had halted Ceyhan loadings until its oil-revenue account was switched to euros from dollars. Iraq's euro account was set up yesterday, they said. (Dow JOnes) ______________________________________________ Sonatrach, ONGC, Reliance pact to bid for Iraq's Tuba. NEW DELHI, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Algeria's Sonatrach and India's ONGC Videsh and Reliance Petroleum will sign a pact on Friday to jointly bid to develop Iraq's Tuba oilfield, an ONGC official said on Wednesday. "Sonatrach, Reliance and OVL will sign a participating agreement on November 10 for joining hands and bidding for Tuba field development," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. The agreement would be signed in London, he said. _____________________________________________ ANNAN TO DISCUSS U.N. ARMS INSPECTIONS WITH IRAQ. UNITED NATIONS - Iraq has asked for a meeting with Secretary-General Kofi Annan to try to break the impasse over arms inspections in the country, U.N. officials said Tuesday. Annan said at a news conference that he would meet representatives of the Iraqi government at a summit-level meeting of Islamic nations beginning on Sunday in Doha, Qatar. This is the first time since a new arms inspection plan was adopted by the Security Council in December that the government of Saddam Hussein has sought a meeting with U.N. officials. Iraq is required to cooperate with the new arms panel, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, if sanctions imposed after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait are to be lifted. The executive chairman of the commission, Hans Blix of Sweden, has assembled a team of inspectors and has said repeatedly that the Iraqis know where to find him but have not approached him. Blix, who has been touring countries that are Security Council members and is now in Paris preparing for a training course for 58 inspectors from 23 countries, met last week with Annan to discuss Iraq. "I will have a chance to talk with the Iraqi leadership in Doha, and I suspect the discussions to be broad-ranging," the secretary-general said Tuesday. "I think that the Iraqis - as many member states here in this organization - would like to see the impasse we are in broken, and for us to move forward." But Annan, who attracted criticism in the United States for meeting with Saddam in Baghdad in February 1998, said he was not in a position to offer the Iraqis any new ideas. Aides say he is not in a hurry to make another trip to Baghdad, either. "Obviously, whatever proposals that will help break the impasse will have to come out of the council - and with their support," he said. An agreement he struck with Saddam in 1998 to allow the resumption of inspections was soon violated by the Iraqis. Later that year, the United States and Britain bombed Iraq because of its refusal to cooperate. Since then, no inspections have been permitted, except for a routine International Atomic Energy Agency check of known nuclear material. In December 1999, the Security Council, deeply divided on how to proceed, established the new commission. Iraq has refused to deal with it. Some diplomats caution that the Iraqis may be hoping to renegotiate the terms of the 1999 Security Council resolution, knowing that a new U.S. president will have to rethink policy on Iraq, since support for comprehensive sanctions is eroding at the United Nations. That resolution allows for merely a suspension of sanctions and only after Iraq has made progress with inspections on the ground. Iraq wants the suspension first. Moreover, Iraq is expected to try to win support for an end to the air patrols by the United States and Britain over "no-flight" zones in the north and south of the country. These patrols are not U.N.-backed, and countries supporting Iraq would have to persuade the United States to suspend the flights in the hope that Iraq would promise to be more cooperative on arms inspections. Iraq, profiting from high oil prices and without limits on the amount it can sell to raise money for civilian needs, is using its better position internationally to encourage the easing of sanctions. Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it was opening a border trading post with Iraq to deliver civilian goods for sale. Dozens of flights have landed in Iraq in recent weeks bringing in relief goods and proponents of an end to sanctions. Ministers attending a trade fair in Baghdad have also been arriving by plane, which is technically permissible if they are not trading in prohibited goods, but nonetheless effectively ending a de facto embargo on all commercial flights to and from Iraq that had held for a decade. ______________________________________________ Oil Prices Rise on Reported Supply Disruptions From Iraq and Nigeria. NEW YORK - Oil prices climbed Tuesday on reports of supply disruptions in Iraq and Nigeria. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, December crude settled up 54 cents, or 1.6%, at $33.40 a barrel. January crude rose 60 cents, or 1.9%, to $32.29 a barrel. December gasoline closed up 0.88 cent, or 1%, at 89.1 cents a gallon. December heating oil jumped 3.24 cents, or 3.5%, to 94.93 cents a gallon, helped by colder-than-normal temperatures in parts of the North East. ______________________________________________ Iraq - E-business regulations. COUNTRY BACKGROUND FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT: In late 1998, the Ministries of Justice and the Interior said in the Iraqi newspaper Al-Zawra that a criminal code for prosecuting cases involving the Internet was being established. The code, of which little has been said since, was slated to address issues of everything from unauthorised access to pirating files to distribution of obscene or immoral material. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW: The EIU ranks Iraq as 'very poor' on its scale intellectual property protection scale. E-CONTRACT READINESS: Not applicable. CENSORSHIP: The major newspapers are run by Saddam Hussein's son Udai. There is no opposition press. Expressions of popular dissent are sometimes found in newspapers, but only aimed at minor ministers or those on the way out, never against Saddam. The two broadcast television stations and two radio stations are regime-operated from Baghdad. CONSUMER PROTECTION: Not applicable. COMPLIANCE: Compliance seems to be the issue most on the minds of UN inspectors, but it is not an issue with Iraq's undeveloped Internet sector. _____________________________________________ Iraqi trade ministry source accuses US, UK of suspending contracts. Text of report by Iraqi TV on 7th November A Trade Ministry source has announced that 1,862 contracts with the value of 3.2bn dollars that Iraq signed within the eight stages of the oil-for-food and medicine programme are still suspended because of the hegemony and pressure by US and British representatives at Committee 661. The source said the actions of the US and British representatives at Committee 661 reflect the hostile attitude of the US and British governments against the Iraqi people. He added that their actions aim at harming further our steadfast and mujahid people through controlling the Security Council and pressuring it into preventing Iraq from utilizing its money and oil revenues. _______________________________________________ Iraqi, Russian industry officials discuss ties, cooperation. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 7th November Adnan Abd-al-Majid, minister of industry and minerals, has met with visiting Russian undersecretary of the Industry, Science and Technology Ministry and his accompanying delegation. The minister stressed Iraq's interest in bolstering ties with Russia and expanding their horizons within the historical ties between the two friendly states. The Russian official stressed the Russian ministry's willingness to effectively contribute to increasing cooperation between the two countries within their mutual interests. ______________________________________________________________________ French plane, delegation arrive in Baghdad. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 7th November A French Falcon plane landed at Baghdad International Airport at 1745 [1445 gmt] today. Reporting from Saddam International Airport, an Iraqi News Agency correspondent said that the French plane is carrying a French delegation comprising parliamentary figures, physicians, lawyers and businessmen. _______________________________________________ IRAQI MINISTER CALLS FOR DAILY FLIGHTS BETWEEN LEBANON AND IRAQ. Iraqi Transportation Minister Ahmad Murtada called for launching daily cargo flights between Beirut and Baghdad. This was revealed in a statement by Lebanon's Trans Mediterranean Airlines (TMA) that also reported a call from Murtada for a meeting with TMA chairman Fadi Saab and other Lebanese officials to discuss further cooperation possibilities. TMA was the first Lebanese airline to make a solidarity flight to Baghdad on October 13. A second TMA flight is expected to leave to Baghdad carrying TMA officials and a delegation of Lebanese businessmen and industrialists who are scheduled to meet the Iraqi Minister in Baghdad and to attend the Baghdad International Fair. (Source: Lebanon.com). _______________________________________________ Iraq's deputy premier Aziz call's on Arab League to condemn US, UK sorties. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 7th November Tariq Aziz, deputy prime minister and acting foreign minister, sent a letter to Arab League Secretary-General Dr Ismat Abd-al-Majid on the continued violation of the Iraqi airspace and sovereignty by US and British aircraft from bases in Turkey. He said that these jets carried out 76 combat air sorties between 16th and 23rd October. He added that the logistical Turkish support to the Americans and the British has made Turkey a chief accomplice in the aggression against Iraq. Aziz said that, accordingly, Turkey will be held internationally responsible for these acts against the Iraqi people. Aziz asked the Arab League secretary-general to condemn these hostile practices and intervene with the concerned governments to suspend these acts and never repeat them again. He added that these practices undermine the sovereignty of an independent state that is a UN and Arab League member. He said that Iraq is calling on the Arab League secretary-general to assume his responsibilities in accordance with the Arab League Charter in his capacity as its secretary-general. _______________________________________________ French, Moroccan planes land in Baghdad. BAGHDAD, Nov 7 (Reuters) - French and Moroccan planes carrying business delegations, politicians and doctors landed in Baghdad on Tuesday, the latest of many such flights in recent weeks to sanctions-bound Iraq. The French plane, which landed at Saddam International Airport at 5:45 p.m. (1445 GMT), carried a delegation led by Jany Le Pen, wife of the leader of France's right-wing National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Earlier, a plane carrying a Moroccan business delegation led by Energy and Trade Minister Mustapha Mansouri arrived in Baghdad. "I carry a personal message from King Mohammed of Morocco to his excellency President Saddam Hussein," Mansouri told reporters at the airport. "We are here to express our solidarity with the Iraqi people," he said, adding that Morocco wanted to see an end to trade sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mansouri's plane was the first to fly directly from Morocco to Iraq since the Gulf War, in which Morocco took part in the U.S.-led multinational force that ousted Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Business leaders in the delegation planned to visit an international trade fair in Baghdad. Tuesday's French plane was the second since Iraqi authorities decided to reopen Baghdad's airport on September 17 after 10 years of enforced closure. France and Russia were the first to sent humanitarian flights to protest the decade-old sanctions. Paris and Moscow say that U.N. Security Council resolutions do not specifically ban passenger flights as long as their cargo is inspected. The United States and Britain say the flights need to be approved by the U.N. sanctions committee. _______________________________________________ Third domestic flight arrives in Basra. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 7th November A third civilian plane landed in Basra Airport today since the resumption of domestic flights on Sunday [5th November]. The plane carried 214 passengers, including Dr Ahmad Murtada Ahmad, minister of transport and communications and several general directors at the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Dr Ahmad told reporters upon the plane's arrival that more efforts must be exerted to raise the level of services at the airport for the comfort of passengers. The minister commended the great efforts exerted by the ministry and airport staff in Basra to provide services for the plane and the passengers in line with the Iraqi defiance of the unjust sanctions and the air embargo imposed by the United States and the United Kingdom in a unilateral decision against international will. _______________________________________________ Saudi Arabia Opens Land Border with Iraq. RIYADH, November 7 (Xinhua) - Saudi Arabia has opened its land border with Iraq, closed since the 1991 Gulf War, to facilitate transportation of Saudi exports under the U.N. oil-for-food program, a local newspaper reported Tuesday. The English-language Arab News daily quoted Abdul Rahman al-Zamil, executive chairman of the Saudi Exports Development Center, as saying that the border opening would halve transport costs. Saudi companies have recently won new contracts with an estimated value of 262 million Saudi riyals (69.87 million U.S. dollars), said the newspaper. Saudi firms had won contracts worth more than 2 billion riyals (533.3 million dollars) since the U.N. humanitarian program was launched in December 1996.. Saudi Arabia, along with Kuwait, allows U.S. and Britain warplanes to fly from their bases to enforce the so-called non-fly zone in southern Iraq. _______________________________________________ Russian university may open branch in Iraq. By Yevgeny Nikitin. BAGHDAD, November 7 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Iraq have drafted a contract to open a Russian university branch in Baghdad, representatives of the Priroda state scientific center and the Rosuchpribor holding told Itar-Tass after meeting with Iraqi Education Minister Fahd Salem al-Shaqra on Tuesday. "Chances for signing the contract are high, although Sweden, Switzerland, France and Jordan take part in the tender, as well," they said. There have been also negotiations on the supply of several million dollars worth of copy-books and school labs to Iraq. Results of the two tenders will be summed up later this week. _______________________________________________ U.N. Sanctions Committee Shelves 1,862 Contracts - Iraq. BAGHDAD, November 7 (Xinhua) - A total of 1,862 contracts Iraq signed with other countries under the eight phases of the U.N. oil-for-food program, have been put on hold by the U.N. Sanctions Committee, said Iraqi Trade Ministry in a statement on Tuesday. The oil sector bore the brunt as 788 oil contracts of the shelved total worth 3.2 billion U.S. dollars have been put on hold, said the statement. The shelved contracts also include 267 for electricity, 185 for the health sector, 160 for the trade sector, 115 for the transport and communications sector, as well as contracts it signed with other countries. _______________________________________________ Iraq vows to step up flights to `no-fly' zones. IRAQ VOWED yesterday to increase the number of its domestic flights until it breaks the "no-fly" zones in the north and south of the country, patrolled by British and US planes. The Foreign Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf - speaking on the second consecutive day that Iraq had sent civilian flights to cities in the no-fly zones - told the Qatar News Agency that Iraq had every right to resume the flights, which are not banned by United Nations resolutions. Iraqi Airways planes, which have been grounded for the past 10 years, had not previously been ready to fly, he said. But "now we have a few planes, and the number will increase until the poisonous American and British arrogance breaks". In the past few months, Iraq has been testing the resolve of the US and Britain to maintain the strict sanctions regime which has been in force since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Also yesterday, an Iraqi appeared in a Baghdad court charged with killing two UN staff and wounding seven others in the Iraqi capital last June. The man, Fu'ad Hussein Haider, said at the time he was planning to take Food and Agriculture Organisation officials hostage to protest against the UN sanctions. The trial was adjourned until 20 November after the charges were read. (c) Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited 2000 _______________________________________________ Britain in fight to keep Iraq sanctions. By Anton La Guardia. Diplomatic Editor BRITAIN is mounting a diplomatic counter-offensive against Iraq to fend off increasing pressure for an end to sanctions against Saddam Hussein. With the United States distracted by the presidential election campaign, the Foreign Office has taken up the task of waging the propaganda war against a combative Iraqi president. As part of the offensive, Peter Hain, the Foreign Office minister, recently visited the Gulf to shore up support among allies who are increasingly hostile to the decade-old sanctions. He is due to deliver a speech today telling the Iraqis that there is "no alternative" to complying with United Nations weapons inspections. Under UN resolutions agreed after the end of the Gulf War in 1991, the Iraqis can sell oil, but only to buy food and other vital supplies. As a result, British officials say, the Iraqis have plenty of cash but choose to let children die of disease for propaganda purposes. Fearful that this message is failing to get through, British officials have inspired a series of leaks and reports hostile to Saddam. These include a spy satellite picture of a grand resort known as Saddam City being built for the president and his cronies, complete with casino, safari park and "special accommodation for his women", stories of human rights violations and diversion of aid for officials. (c) Telegraph Group Limited, London, _______________________________________________ UK wants Iraq sanctions lifted if conditions met. LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday that U.N. sanctions against Iraq should be lifted, but only after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed to allow arms inspectors back into the country. "Britain wants to see the sanctions suspended," Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain told BBC radio. "There is a new way forward. What we should do is join together and encourage Saddam to take it. "That is why we spent eight months negotiating with the United Nations on Security Council resolution 1284, which would provide for sanctions to be suspended within six months." Iraq has repeatedly said it would not accept the new U.N. arms inspection team established under the resolution last December, arguing that it has already destroyed all its banned weapons of mass destruction. The resolution offers an easing of trade sanctions on Iraq if Baghdad allows inspectors empowered to dismantle Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to resume inspection work. Hain defended the sanctions, which critics say have contributed to the misery of the Iraqi people. "There is $24 billion of oil wealth under the control of the U.N. that he (Saddam) would like to get his hands on, re-arm himself into a position to inflict tyranny...on his own people, which he has not been able to do under the sanctions regime." He also called Saddam a "brutal dictator" following a British Foreign Office report released last week which claimed Baghdad was covering up torture, execution and mutilation in its bid for international rehabilitation. Iraq has dismissed the report as groundless. _______________________________________________________ FRENCH SEEK TO REVAMP IRAQ OIL. (AP) - Major French oil companies are pledging to help their Iraqi counterparts with high-tech solutions to increase the amount of recoverable oil from existing fields and improve the quality of refined products. Spurred by their country's support for Iraq in its fight against U.N. trade sanctions, French oil companies are confident about business prospects that will be available to them once the sanctions imposed for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait are lifted. The Iraqi oil industry is still recovering from damage inflicted during the 1991 Gulf War, with repairs progressing slowly under restrictions of the U.N. sanctions. The country's own efforts to increase production have stumbled because of a lack of spare parts and equipment. Total Fina Elf, one of more than 100 French firms participating Sunday in the annual Baghdad International Fair, is near agreement with the Iraqis to develop two fields, one of them believed to be among the largest in the world. Combined, the two fields are estimated to hold more than 35 billion barrels of oil, more than three times the company's proven reserves to date. In addition to striking deals, representatives from the French oil industry said they were discussing with their Iraqi partners ways to improve oil recovery from existing fields. _______________________________________________ Iraq, Iran sign transport cooperation protocol. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 6th November The joint Iraqi-Iranian talks were concluded today. The protocol reached at the end of the talks was signed for the Iraqi side by Sabri Dafi Abd, under secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications, while it was signed for the Iranian side by the under secretary of the Iranian Ministry of Transport and Roads. The protocol provides for joint cooperation in the areas of land and maritime transport and railways, as well as the transport of goods and passengers to visit the holy shrines through agreeing on setting up joint border checkpoints. The protocol also delineates the means of developing maritime transport via Iraqi and Iranian ports. tel: +44 (0)20 7403 5200 fax: +44 (0)20 7403 3823 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: www.mariamappeal.com
