IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 162 Tuesday, November 28, 2000 LATEST NEWS++++++ FRESH FROM ITS INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE....... VHS copies of the film 'Big Ben to Baghdad', the epic account of last year's journey in a 37-year-old Routemaster bus from London to the capital of sanctions-engulfed Iraq. The 65-minute-film costs £9.99 from the Mariam Appeal, 13a Borough High Street, London+++++++++++++++++LATEST ____________________________________________________ LETTER TO PETER HAIN AT THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE FROM GEORGE GALLOWAY MP, FOUNDER OF THE MARIAM APPEAL.... Peter Hain MP Minister of State Foreign and Commonwealth Office King Charles St London SW1A 2AH 27th November 2000 Dear Peter, I have been contacted by colleagues in Morocco who report that the public and media in Casablanca are seething with anger at your representative on the 661 Committee who has apparently for the past several days blocked a humanitarian flight of 55 Arab lawyers and a quantity of medicine bound for Iraq. Have you any idea - if you don't there are plenty of diplomats paid to do so - of the enmity towards Britain you are generating by actions such as these? The pattern is familiar to me. Endless questions about the precise purpose of the passengers and the details of the medicine some of which is perishable. Everyone knows this is a ruse to make things as difficult as possible for the Iraqi people with whom laughably you continue to "have no quarrel." You would be well advised to instruct your envoy to lift his veto on this flight and I give you notice that if you do not do so I will seek find parliamentary opportunities to highlight it. I hope you will see sense. Yours sincerely, George Galloway MP ____________________________________________________ SAUDI CROWN PRINCE MAKES THIRD DONATION TO THE MARIAM APPEAL His Royal Highness Prince Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz last week made his third contribution to the Mariam Appeal. The donation, of £20,000, brings the total the Crown Prince has given to the appeal £75,000 in just over two years. __________________________________________ Iraqi leader's trip marks consolidation of ties. By The Times of India News Service. NEW DELHI: India is rolling out the red carpet for Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadhan during his five-day official visit here. India will "like to see some positive action" from the global community in the United Nations towards lifting sanctions against Iraq. External affairs minister Jaswant Singh has already called for lifting the sanctions in tandem with Iraq complying with various UN resolutions. Ramadhan, with a 17-member delegation including oil minister Amer Mohammed Rashid, arrived in the Capital on Monday evening to renew high-level bilateral political contacts and give a new impetus to economic cooperation. "This is the highest-level visit ever from Iraq to India in the last 25 years... We have close relations with Iraq and are deeply concerned about the humanitarian angle there, especially the high mortality rate of children," said an external affairs ministry spokesperson. In keeping with the "close ties" between the two countries, a "long-term cooperation agreement" to consolidate bilateral ties will be signed during the visit. An MoU between the Confederation of Indian Industry and Iraqi Federation of Industry is also expected to be finalised. The Indo-Iraq Joint Commission will also meet to discuss several areas, including trade and commerce, agriculture, housing and construction, among other things. ______________________________________________ Iraqi vice premier not in Moscow despite previous report. Text of report by Russia TV on 28 November Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz is expected in Moscow tonight. He will meet Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. The main issue on the meeting agenda will be looking for the ways of solving Iraqi crisis and lifting the embargo against Iraq imposed by the UN 10 years ago. Source: Russia TV channel, Moscow, in Russian 0800 gmt 28 Nov 00. ______________________________________________________ Iraq asks UN to allocate oil cash to Palestinians . Dubai (Platt's)-27Nov2000/1153 pm EST/453 GMT Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Sahaf has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan formally requesting that a portion of funds from Iraqi oil sales under the UN-monitored oil-for-food program be allocated to Palestinians, the official Iraqi news agency INA reported Tuesday. INA, which published the text of the letter, said Sahaf told Annan that the Palestinians deserved the full support of the Arab and Iraqi nations in their struggle against, "the criminal Zionist acts against them." Sahaf added: "The government of Iraq asks you officially to allocate a share of the memorandum of understanding of 20/5/1996 between Iraq and the UN to the people of Palestine to support its national stand. A share of Iraqi funds is a legitimate right of the Palestinians to support their defence of their land in accordance with the UN charter," Sahaf said. The proposal to reserve a portion of Iraqi oil sales for the Palestinians was made by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at a cabinet meeting in Baghdad Saturday. _____________________________________________________ Iraq weighs options on December oil prices. DUBAI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Iraq is weighing its reaction to the United Nations' formal rejection of its December crude oil prices, but an immediate response is unlikely, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Tuesday. "We have only just received this (U.N.) letter and we want to study it (before taking any decisions)," the official told Reuters. Lifters of Iraqi oil are on tenterhooks, fearing there may be a break in exports at the start of December if Baghdad fails in the next few days to revise its prices - rejected on Monday by the U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee for being too low. But Iraq is not rushing its next move. Asked if Baghdad would decide on a course of action later on Tuesday, the official said, "It is Ramadan and things take time." Work hours in virtually all Muslim countries are shortened during the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Well before Iraq handed in its December crude prices, Baghdad asked the U.N. to extend oil sales volume from the current eighth phase of the oil sales programme - which expires on December 5 - to January 15 to avoid a break in exports. But the U.N.'s rejection of Iraq's December crude oil pricing has raised concern in the trading community that there could yet be a disruption in some 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Iraqi oil sales. Iraq submits prices each month for U.N. approval. If no new formula is submitted and approved by Friday, Iraqi oil exports could be halted. But in October Baghdad continued exporting even though its price formulae were approved after the first of the month. Baghdad has been pressing the U.N. and customers for a 50-cent per barrel surcharge to be paid into an Iraqi-controlled bank account. Iraq's lower December prices were assumed to be an attempt to compensate buyers of crude oil. Under the humanitarian oil-for-food programme, Iraq can sell as much crude as it likes, with oil customers paying into a tightly-controlled U.N. escrow account. That revene is used to purchase food, medicine and other supplies to alleviate suffering under sweeping sanctions imposed when Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. _______________________________________________________ U.K. Oil Futures Rise on Fears Iraq May Stop Exports. Wall Street Journal, Nov 28. Advance Is Capped by Idea Baghdad Might Back Down LONDON - Oil futures rose, boosted by fears that Iraq may halt exports by the end of this week in the latest assault on United Nations sanctions. January Brent crude futures gained 1%, hitting $33.45 (39.89 euros) a barrel after the U.N. rejected Iraq's proposal for lower oil prices in December. Iraq wants 50 cents for each barrel it sells, paid to an account outside U.N. control. January Brent later settled back to $33.23 a barrel. Gains were capped by some traders' expectations that Iraq will back down on its threat, or that the U.N. will find a stop-gap solution before the end of the week. The U.N. Sanctions Committee on Monday rejected a proposal by Iraq to lower its official oil prices for December, according to U.N. diplomats. The committee's decision came after U.N. oil overseers concluded last week that Iraq's proposed prices were below fair market value. Iraq's December price formula has been seen as part of Baghdad's latest effort to chip away at the sanctions imposed on it after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. But market watchers were hopeful the crisis would be resolved. "Expect Iraq to capitulate at the last minute," said Tony Machacek, futures broker at Prudential Bache. "The Iraq threat is a little bit worrying for the market, but people are certainly not panicking." Brent futures have an "unlimited" upside if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein makes good on the threat to halt shipments, a broker said. Iraq's exports of 2.2 million barrels a day account for almost 3% of the world's daily oil consumption. Brent futures could rocket to $40 a barrel and even $50 a barrel in the event of a prolonged halt, the highest price in the history of Brent trade at London's International Petroleum Exchange, brokers said. A strike over wages by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria helped support Brent futures. Kenneth Narebor, the association's general secretary, said the strike was aimed at disrupting exports, but so far there is no evidence to suggest this may be the case. ______________________________________________________ Domestic TV service on satellite. Baghdad-based Republic of Iraq Television, the official television station of the Iraqi government, is currently monitored on Arabsat 2A at 26 degrees east, digital transmission as follows: transponder frequency: 11950 MHz, polarization: vertical, video encryption: MPEG-2, symbol rate (SR): 4000, forward error correction (FEC): 3/4, video programme identification (V-PID): 4130; audio programme identification (A-PID): 4131. The Iraqi Satellite Channel continues to be observed on Arabsat and other satellites. ______________________________________________________ Confrontation Possible After UN Rejects Iraq Oil Prices. LONDON - (Dow Jones)-The United Nation's rejection Monday of an Iraqi proposal to lower its oil prices for December sets up a potentially dramatic confrontation that is sure to jolt already high-strung oil markets, sources said. The immediate impact of Monday's decision by the U.N. Iraq Sanctions Committee - a likely suspension of Iraqi exports on Dec. 1 - wasn't lost on futures traders, who pushed the benchmark North Sea Brent contract up 31 cents to an intraday high of $33.45 a barrel in afternoon trading. Without U.N.-approved prices for December, Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization can't deliver oil beyond Thursday. Diplomats in New York and SOMO officials may try to negotiate mutually acceptable prices this week, but observers were skeptical that Iraq would back down before first testing the United Nation's resolve with a shutdown in exports. "They are in a position of relative strength due to the present oil market, and it's logical for traders and other people to think that something could happen, at least for a few days," said Francis Perrin, editor in chief of Arab Oil and Gas. Iraq's December price formula has been seen as part of Baghdad's long-running battle to loosen the sanctions regime imposed on it after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. After winning some ground on the air embargo and reparations, Iraq is now pressing to gain some control over the proceeds of its oil exports. Iraq is allowed to export all the oil it can produce, but the revenues are controlled by the United Nations. SOMO wants the United Nations to set below-market prices for December sales and has reportedly asked buyers make up the difference through an under-the-table surcharge of 50 cents a barrel. The premium is to be paid in advance into an Iraqi-controlled account. Several oil companies agreed in October and November to pay SOMO a premium of 10 cents a barrel over U.N.-approved prices into an account outside U.N. control, according to the influential Middle East Economic Survey. Companies that refused had their contract volumes cut, MEES said. Observers, however, say the United Nations is unlikely ever to set below-market December prices, since SOMO could then seek deeper discounts - and higher premiums - in the future. Failure to find a middle ground could trigger a wider interruption of exports. "The first priority is to find a mutually acceptable price formula for December," an oil industry source said. "If that will not happen, loadings will be postponed, probably for some time." The consequences of a loss of Iraq's 2.2 million barrels a day of exports at the onset of winter have increased Iraq's leverage. Brent futures have an "unlimited" upside if shipments are halted, one broker said. Saudi Arabia has pledged to boost its output if Iraqi supplies are cut, and consuming countries will likely tap their stockpiles. But both responses would take time, and traders predict high price volatility in the interim. So far, however, the market's response has been measured. After the early rally, January Brent futures later slipped back to $33.10 a barrel. "The Iraq threat is a little bit worrying for the market, but people are certainly not panicking," said Prudential Bache futures broker Tony Machacek. "Expect Iraq to capitulate at the last minute." Perrin said while Iraq might stage a brief disruption of exports, it won't want to damage its hard-won market share with an extended break. In the end, he said, the United Nations and Iraq are expected to reach a compromise. "They will find an arrangement," Perrin said. Beyond Dec. 1, however, looms another key date: Dec. 5, when the current six-month phase of the U.N. oil-for-food program expires. Iraq, through its supporters on the Security Council, is set to lobby for some formal, direct control over its oil revenues, the industry source said. Baghdad also wants its obligations to Gulf War victims reduced. Iraq has probed on a number of fronts in recent months, with some success. Last summer, Iraq began charging port fees of between $10,000 to $15,000 for tankers loading at Mina al-Bakr, its offshore platform, MEES said. As of Jan. 1, the fee will rise to $30,000 for large tankers, with funds to be deposited with a company in Jordan outside U.N. control, MEES reported. The U.N. Security Council agreed in September to lower Iraq's contribution to a compensation fund for Gulf War victims to 25% from 30% of every oil dollar earned, and later agreed to allow Iraq to collect payments for its oil in euros rather than dollars. Now, Iraq has asked the United Nations to let it collect 1.5 euros per barrel to cover the costs of producing its oil. "This plan has been well thought over, and they have done lots of 'what if' scenarios," said the industry source. "They want to get out of the whole sanctions. If they cannot get out of it all, they at least can get part of it by this premium, and the euro 1.5, which is more important." ______________________________________________________ VNUKOVO AIRLINES TO MAKE FLIGHTS TO IRAQ "HUMANITARIAN-PASSENGER". MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - The Vnukovo airline company intends to transfer its Moscow-Baghdad-Moscow flights from the category of "humanitarian-medical" to the category of "humanitarian-passenger," Andrei Okhotkin, general director of the Vnukovo Airlines - Trading House subsidiary, which deals with flights to Iraq, has told Interfax. State officials, businessmen, and even simple tourists should have an opportunity to use direct charter flights to Baghdad, he said. So far, the "3-5 tonnes of medicines and a small accompanying group" scheme is working. In Okhotkin's opinion, "there should be a certain orderliness" as regards flights to Baghdad. Vnukovo Airlines are currently conducting active negotiations both with the Russian Foreign Ministry and Iraq to work out a certain strategy aimed at "overcoming the anarchy" in this sphere. "Russia should not be indifferent to who flies to Baghdad and what statements he makes there on Russia's behalf," Okhotkin said. In this connection, the idea of creating a single coordination council, which would regulate and organize flights to Iraq, is currently being discussed, he said. ______________________________________________________ IRAQIS CELEBRATE ASIAN SOCCER WIN WITH MACHINE-GUN SHOTS. BAGHDAD, Nov. 27 (Oana-Kyodo) - Iraqis celebrated with machine-gun shots and tracer bullets Sunday evening after the Iraq national soccer team won the Asian Youth Cup in Tehran, beating Japan 2-1 in the final. The streets of Baghdad were packed with young people dancing and singing while buses and passenger cars blew their horns to celebrate the victory, won in extra time with a golden goal. This is the fifth time for Iraq to win the Asian Youth Cup. They won for the first time in Kuwait in 1975, in Iran in 1977, in Bangladesh in 1978 and in Doha in 1988. ______________________________________________________ China tells Iraq it will work for lifting sanctions. China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told visiting Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on Monday that Beijing will work for an early lifting of U.N. sanctions against Baghdad, state television reported. "Sanctions, blockades and military attacks against any country will eventually lose popular support," Tang was quoted as saying by China Central Television. Tang also criticized no-fly zones set up by "some Western countries" over Iraq as "against the U.N. Charter and the norms of international relations" and a violation of Iraq's sovereignty. He expressed sympathy with the Iraqi people and pledged efforts to lift the sanctions in the U.N. Security Council. Aziz was quoted as saying Iraq appreciates China's "important" role in seeking a "fair and rational solution" to the problems Baghdad faces. China, along with fellow permanent U.N. Security Council member Russia, has consistently supported an end to sanctions on Iraq, which were imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. (c) 2000 KYODO NEWS. ______________________________________________________ UN panel says Iraq's oil prices too low. UNITED NATIONS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee on Monday rejected as too low Iraq's proposed oil prices for December, leading to fears Baghdad's exports may be delayed next week, diplomats said. Iraq proposed the lower selling prices for its crude oil grades so it could include a 50-cent per-barrel surcharge outside the U.N. program and still keep its oil competitive, oil industry analysts said. But the committee agreed with an assessment last week by the U.N. oil experts that the prices Baghdad submitted for December exports were too low, the diplomats said. U.N. officials were waiting to see if Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) would submit amended prices in time for the sanctions committee to approve them by Friday. The current price mechanism expires on Thursday. Iraq submits its pricing each month for U.N. approval. If no new formula is submitted and approved by Friday, Iraq could halt its oil exports. In October, however, Iraq continued oil flows even though its pricing formula was approved after the first of the month. Baghdad has been pressing the United Nations and buyers for a surcharge of 50 cents a barrel it wants paid into an Iraqi-controlled bank account. The lower prices were assumed to be an attempt to compensate buyers of crude. Under the humanitarian or oil-for-food program Iraq can sell as much crude as it likes, with oil customers paying into a tightly controlled U.N. escrow account. The revenue is used to purchase food, medicine and other supplies to alleviate the impact of the sweeping sanctions imposed when Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. With oil prices rising, Iraq has put forth a number of measures to allow it to control at least part of its revenues, a provision included in a December 1999 resolution on condition Baghdad allows U.N. arms inspectors back into the country. Iraq has refused to do this since the weapons experts left shortly before a U.S.-British bombing raid in December 1998, saying it needed a clearer path than U.N. resolutions spell out for the end of the stringent sanctions. Baghdad has also proposed that some of the surcharge monies go to Palestinian victims of the nearly two-month old violence with Israelis, a measure the council is bound to reject. In related developments, an advisory board of commissioners to the new U.N. weapons inspection agency, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, met on Monday to complete a new report on the agency's preparedness to resume arms inspections. Diplomats also said the United States and France were nearing agreement on how to standardize notifications for countries flying aircraft into Iraq. Washington is expected to accede to Paris' demands that notification rather than permission is needed for the flights but will get some other concessions in return, they said. Dozens of countries, mainly from the Arab world, have sent planes to Baghdad over the past two months to protest the decade-old sanctions. The parade of aircraft was begun by France on Sept. 22, which allowed a plane to go to Baghdad on short notice and without committee approval. ______________________________________________________ Japan embassy in Baghdad opens unofficially, on limited basis. Excerpt from report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo Baghdad, 27th November: The Japanese government has reopened its embassy in Baghdad on an unofficial, limited basis primarily to cope with an increasing number of Japanese business people travelling in Iraq, a diplomatic source said Monday [27th November]. The source said the Japanese government will send two Jordan-based diplomats to Baghdad on a rotational basis and the Iraqi government has approved the arrangement. The Japanese embassy in Baghdad has started functioning "to serve Japanese nationals and businessmen in Iraq, but it is not reopened", an Asian diplomat told Kyodo News. The arrangement was made during a three-day visit to Iraq by Yasukuni Enoki, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau. _______________________________________________________ Military spokesman reports US, British air sorties on 27th November. Text of report by Iraqi TV on 27th November on 27th November Day after day, the zealous men of our valiant armed forces prove their heroic determination to confront all the mean attempts of the dirty US, British and Zionist enemies who receive direct support from the nation's traitors, the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who have wickedly continued to provide support for their ravens to attack mujahid Iraq with the aim of obstructing its pan-Arab role in jihad to liberate Arab Palestine, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, from the filth of the Zionists. In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency [INA], a spokesman for the Air Defence Command said: At 1135 [0835 gmt] today, the US and British ravens of evil violated our airspace, with the direct support of the Saudi and Kuwaiti ruling regimes. They carried out 16 combat air sorties from Saudi airspace, and 12 sorties from Kuwaiti airspace. They were backed by an AWACS from Saudi airspace and an A2-C from Kuwaiti airspace. They flew over areas in the governorates of Basra, Dhi Qar, Al-Muthanna, Al-Qadisiyah, Al-Najaf, Karbala, Wasit and Maysan. Our heroic missile force and valiant ground defences confronted them and forced them to leave our airspace for the bases of evil and vice in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. _____________________________________________________ Convoy leaves for Amman with aid to Palestinians. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 27th November In implementation of leader President Saddam Husayn's orders to share food and medicines with the Palestinian people, the third consignment, within the framework of the Iraqi steadfastness convoy containing foodstuffs and medicines, left for Amman today. Trade Minister Dr Muhammad Mahdi Salih, who was present to bid farewell to the convoy, told the press that this consignment comprises 50 trucks loaded with flour, rice, vegetable oil, formula milk and medical supplies. _______________________________________________________ Health minister says US, UK envoys suspend three contracts. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 27th November Out of their insistence on inflicting further harm on the Iraqi people, the US and British representatives in Committee 661 have continued to suspend the medicine and medical supplies contracts Iraq has signed within the framework of the oil-for-food programme. In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency [INA], Health Minister Dr Umid Midhat Mubarak said the US and British representatives suspended three contracts Iraq signed with Italian and Indian companies to supply it with material for the central nervous system and raw material for the Samarra Medicine Factory. The health minister added: In as much as it is astonishing and condemned, this measure shows the hostile policy that governs these two states. This policy is aimed at denying the Iraqi people access to the necessary medicine and medical supplies. _______________________________________________________ Iraqi foreign minister protests US-UK sorties to UN, Security Council. Text of report by Iraqi radio on 27th November Iraq has renewed its absolute rejection of the so-called no-fly zones imposed by the United States and Britain in northern and southern Iraq according to a unilateral decision and against the international will. This came in two letters sent by Foreign Minister Muhammad Sa'id al-Sahhaf to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and UN Security Council President Peter van Walsum to protest the US and British warplanes' continuation of their combat sorties over Iraqi residential neighbourhoods and civilian facilities. miscellany===================== Dear Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq subscriber, This message is a final reminder about THIS WEEKEND's Anti-Sanctions Conference in Manchester, co-sponsored by Voices in the Wilderness UK and CASI. Bookings and requests for further information should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . The conference takes place in Manchester University Students' Union, Oxford Road, Manchester. Hope to see you there! best wishes, Seb Wills, CASI. PS Don't forget to start collecting signatures for the new anti-sanctions petition - full details at www.notinournames.org.uk . Why not volunteer to become your constituency's Local Contact, too? ________________________________________________ Depleted Uranium Conference, Gijon, Asturias, Spain November 25/26 Over 500 delegates and speakers - from Europe, the US and the Middle East - attended the conference. In attendance were Gulf War veterans from Britain and the United States. The Mariam Appeal was represented by George Galloway MP and Lord Rea. ________________________________________________ tel: +44 (0)20 7403 5200 fax: +44 (0)20 7403 3823 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: www.mariamappeal.com
