From: Stasi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Xinhua: Iraq Defies UN Emargo, US Military Strikes HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Xinhua Peoples Republic of China YEARENDER Iraq Defies U.N. Embargo, U.S. Military Strikes By Li Xuejun BAGHDAD, December 16 (Xinhua) -- With the lifting of the 11-year U.N. economic sanctions still nowhere in sight, Iraq sharpened its tactics on the economic, military and diplomatic fronts in 2001 to challenge the embargo and incessant U.S. military strikes. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who has remained entrenched and recalcitrant as an international pariah for more than a decade, vowed in a televised speech early this year that the Iraqi people " can face the embargo and fight the Americans." Saddam meant his words as he continued to prove himself a constant bugbear for both the U.S. and the U.N., although he was soundly routed in the 1991 Gulf War, triggered by Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq Signs Free Trade Agreements With Arab States As a new gambit to grapple with the stringent embargo slapped after its invasion of Kuwait, Iraq launched an unprecedented campaign in the first year of the new century to sign free trade agreements with fellow Arab countries, in further efforts to break out of the economic and political isolation wreaked by the embargo. Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan has been busy flying to Egypt, Syria, Algeria and other Arab countries for this objective. Ramadan flew to Egypt in January and signed a free trade agreement with Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Obeid on January 18, the first of such accord in the Arab world with an aim of removing tariffs and import and export licenses as part of the effort to eventually establish a common Arab market. Days later, Ramadan made another ground-breaking trip to former rival Syria and reached a similar free trade agreement with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Miro on January 30. To cap Iraq's efforts in this respect, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates agreed on November 2 to promote trade and scrap tariffs under a preferential free trade accord, the sixth signed between Iraq and Arab countries, also including Tunisia, Yemen and Algeria. Moreover, Iraq, which has called on other Arab nations to follow suit, is set to conclude similar agreements with more Arab countries, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco, in a bid to throw off the shackles of the embargo. Meanwhile, countries worldwide have been queuing up to try to get a slice of Iraq's oil wealth. A record number of 1,650 companies from 48 countries attended the November 1-14 Baghdad International Fair, the largest ever in more than a decade. Observers say that Saddam has never hesitated to dish out lucrative oil contracts to reward those friendly countries and potential supporters of his regime, as a way to further erode the embargo. Iraq Achieves Military Breakthrough Iraq's poorly-armed air defense forces have for years tried in vain to shoot down a U.S. or British plane enforcing the two no-fly zones in the north and south, set up by the U.S.-led Western allies after the Gulf War to allegedly protect the Kurds and Shiite Muslims from possible attacks by Iraqi government troops. Nonetheless, Iraq has managed to turn the table this year by focusing on the slow-flying coalition spy planes rather than the formidable fighter jets equipped with anti-radar missiles. The strategy seemed to have paid off, as Iraq announced on August 27 that it downed a U.S. reconnaissance plane over southern Iraq. On the same day, the U.S. acknowledged that it had lost an unmanned aircraft in Iraq, the first time since the 1991 Gulf War. On September 11, Iraq said that it shot down the second U.S. spy jet. The story just did not come to the end. One month later, Iraq claimed that it brought down the third U. S. spy plane in three months and on all occasions, Iraq's state-run television showed footage featuring piles of scorched wreckage of the downed planes, which still clear carries such English words as "U.S. Navy Prop" or "property of U.S.A.F. (U.S. Air Force)." In early August, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted that Iraq's air defense system has "quantitatively and qualitatively" improved. In order to incapacitate Iraq's air defense, U.S. President George W. Bush ordered air strikes on targets in the suburbs of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in February, the largest military operations since December 1998. The U.S. and Britain have since launched a flurry of air raids on Iraq's military targets inside the two no-fly zones, though there has been an apparent letup following the start of the U.S.- led military operations in Afghanistan on October 7. Launches Diplomatic Offensive Determined to breach the long-term diplomatic isolation, Iraq buried the hatchet with a number of former foes and rivals, including Egypt and Syria, two heavyweights in the Arab world. Egypt and Syria, which both joined the U.S.-led multinational force driving Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in the Gulf War, are now leading Arab countries in calling for the lifting of the embargo on Iraq and have distanced themselves from the U.S. policy toward Iraq. Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan became the highest- ranking Iraqi official to visit Cairo in January since 1991, and was among the top-ranking Iraqi officials to travel to Damascus in January in four years. Baghdad scored a big diplomatic gain on August 11 when Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Miro flew to the Iraqi capital for a historic visit aimed at further improving the ties between the two countries after two decades of hostility. Miro was the highest- ranking Syrian official to visit Baghdad in more than two decades. Earlier, Syria re-opened its interests section in Baghdad in May, the first time since the two rival Arab powers severed ties in 1980, when Damascus sided with Tehran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Saddam, ostracized by the Arab world for his invasion of Kuwait, was invited to the Arab summit held in March in Amman, Jordan, the clearest sign yet of Iraq's return to the Arab fold. More diplomats have returned to Iraq and more countries like Switzerland, Ukraine and Armenia opened or re-opened their embassies in Baghdad this year, with other nations like Germany, Norway and Brazil ready to join their ranks. Iraq in Spotlight After September 11 Attacks on U.S. The September 11 terror attacks in the U.S. have once again thrown Iraq in the spotlight, as Western media released one report after another claiming Iraq's involvement in the attacks and the anthrax scare, though U.S. officials acknowledged that there were no hard evidence to prove such allegations. However, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has refused to remove Iraq, one of the Washington-designated "state sponsors of terrorism," from its list of military targets and warned time and again that the U.S. could turn attention to Iraq after achieving its goals of the military campaign in Afghanistan. In fact, the U.S. has been attempting to pave the way for future military actions against Iraq within the context of the U.S.-led military campaign against terrorism. U.S. President George W. Bush warned late November that Iraq must allow U.N. weapons inspectors back to the country to show that it is not developing or hiding weapons of mass destruction, otherwise it will face consequences. In response, Iraq said that it will never bow to U.S. threats though the U.S. tough warning has sounded alarm bells around the world that it might launch a military campaign against Iraq following its war in Afghanistan. Iraq's Strained Ties With U.S., U.N. to Prevail Bush, whose father, former U.S. President George Bush, started the Gulf War to roust Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, has kept a tough Iraq policy since he took office in January by enforcing the two air exclusion zones, keeping the U.N. sanctions on Baghdad and pushing for the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq after an absence of three years. While Saddam has proved himself no soft touch in the confrontations with the world's sole superpower and has vowed to continue upgrading military capabilities to inflict greater losses on the U.S. and Britain, challenge the embargo, and bar the resumption of U.N. arms inspections that were terminated before the U.S.-British air war against Iraq in December 1998. Moreover, the ill feeling and distrust between Iraq and the U.N. are exacerbated after Iraq expelled in September 10 U.N. staffers for alleged espionage and chastised the world's leading body for delaying scheduled bilateral talks and squandering its money. Observers point out that although the U.S. and the U.N. face an increasingly louder international chorus for lifting the embargo and decrying Western air raids on Iraq, they have apparently been caught in a quandary as the embargo issue has long rattled a deeply-divided U.N. Security Council and U.S.-British military strikes have cut little ice on Iraq's unflinching determination to shoot down coalition aircraft and beef up its air defense system. Even though the U.S. is seen set to revamp the embargo regime to sharpen its edge and meanwhile tighten the noose around Saddam with new threat of military attacks, Saddam is expected to be as adamant and intransigent as before. All these suggest that Iraq's tense relations with the U.S. and the U.N. are surely to persist and may become more acute now and in the future. Enditem _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
