IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 136
Thursday October 12, 2000
LATEST NEWS++++++++LATEST+++++++NEWS
Iraq threatens to halt oil exports over UN money
By Agence France-Presse Baghdad--Oct. 12--Iraq could suspend oil exports if
the United Nations fails to convert into euros billions of Iraqi-owned U.S.
dollars held in a U.N. account, the Iraqi central bank's deputy governor
told a weekly published on Thursday. The Iraqi money is currently held in a
U.S. dollar-denominated escrow account administered by the U.N. and used to
operate the oil-for-aid program between the U.N. and Baghdad. The
oil-for-aid program allows Iraq to sell a limited value of oil to pay for
humanitarian supplies.
"Iraq may suspend crude exports if the United Nations refuses to reply
favourably to its request to convert into euros its account at the French
bank BNP," deputy governor Abdel al-Ilah Boutros told Al-Zawra.
Iraqi Finance Minister Hekmat Ibrahim al-Azzawi announced last month a
decision to ditch the dollar in foreign trade transactions.
"The dollar is the currency of an enemy state, and must be abandoned for
other currencies, including the euro," Azzawi said.
The central bank announced Sunday it had begun to buy European currencies.
Since December 1996 the United Nations has allowed Iraq to sell oil to pay
for imports of food and medicine. Under the decade-old sanctions regime none
of the revenue is allowed to pass through Iraqi government hands.
Instead, it is paid into an escrow account at BNP-Paribas, which is paid a
fee for operating the account.
The Iraqi cabinet decided Sept. 25 to shift from the dollar to the euro or
any other reserve currency after a group of economists recommended the move,
according to an official statement.
The panel was asked earlier by President Saddam Hussein to study the
feasibility of the departure to the euro from the dollar, the currency of a
state that Iraq considers an enemy.
Iranian FM set to visit Baghdad on Friday
BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (AFP) - Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi is expected in
Baghdad Friday on a three-day visit, the first such mission in 10 years, an
official Iraqi source said Thursday.
Kharazi will stay in Iraq "until Sunday" and be accompanied by a delegation
of high-ranking Iraqi officials, the source speaking on the condition of
anonymity told AFP.
It will be the first such mission by an Iranian foreign minister since Ali
Akbar Velayati travelled to Iraq in November 1990 ahead of the Gulf War in
which Iraqi forces were evicted from Kuwait.
A source in Tehran said Tuesday Kharazi could fly to Baghdad, joining a
string of Arab and other states which have tested a UN embargo on flights in
recent weeks to sanctions-hit Iraq.
The official Iraqi news agency had announced the visit on September 30,
saying its aim was to examine ways of improving relations between the two
countries, but gave no date.
After the 1980-88 war between the two neighbours, Iran and Iraq renewed
relations at charge d'affaires level in 1990, but normalisation has been
held up by the issue of prisoners of war, and the presence of opposition
groups in each other's country.
Another bone of contention is the evacuation of Iraqi planes to Iran to
avoid US-led raids during the Gulf War.
Iraq says that 115 military and 33 civilian aircraft were flown to Iran, but
Tehran puts the number at only 22 and says it would return them if asked to
do so by the United Nations.
Kharazi was in Beirut Thursday, after visiting Damascus Wednesday on a
coordinating mission linked to the crisis in the Middle East.
Regular air service between Moscow, Baghdad opens in October.
MOSCOW, October 12 (Itar-Tass) - A regular air service of a humanitarian
character connecting Moscow and Baghdad opens on October 27. Flights to and
>From Baghdad will be performed by planes of the " Vnukovo airlines" company,
said Aram Shegunts, Director general of the Committee for international
cultural, scientific and business cooperation with Iraq, Shegunts told Tass
that each plane flying to Iraq is expected to airlift around five tons of
humanitarian cargoes for the Iraqi people who have been
under pressure of economic sanctions for nine years now.
According to official reports, over 1.5 million Iraqi people, predominantly
women, children and elderly people, died in Iraq because of shortages of
medications and foodstuffs. Shegunts pointed out that the air service will
be resumed strictly in line
with UN stipulated procedures, notifying the UN committee for sanctions
against Iraq.
Iraq welcomes Jordan decision to halt Lloyd's inspections of Iraqi imports
AMMAN, Oct 12 (AFP) - Iraq's ambassador to Jordan, Sabah Yassin, praised
Jordan's call for a halt in Lloyd's inspections of Iraqi imports through the
Jordanian port of Aqaba, in statements published Wednesday.
"Iraqi trade through Aqaba port is expected to increase and subsequently
there will be an increase in bilateral trade between the two countries,"
Yassin told Al-Dustour newspaper.
"All of Iraq welcomes this decision because it touches the interests of both
Iraq and Jordan," the ambassador said.
Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb has said his government informed the
British insurers Lloyd's "of its decision decision to put a halt to its
mission" of inspecting Iraqi imports transiting through Aqaba.
Abu Ragheb, in statements carried by the Jordan press on Wednesday, did not
say when this decision becomes effective and called anew for a lifting of
the UN embargo in force against Iraq ever since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The United Nations has since June 1993 tasked Lloyd's with inspecting goods
bound for Iraq via Aqaba, Jordan's only outlet to the sea, to ensure only
authorised goods are being delivered.
Jordan is arguing that the Lloyd's mission is an obstacle to an ambitious
project due for launch in early 2001 to set up a special economic zone in
the Red Sea port of Aqaba aimed at attracting foreign investment.
The Lloyd's mission is costing cash-strapped Jordan 2.5 million dollars a
year, according to the newspaper Jordan Times.
Iraq-backed Palestinian leader vows to take up arms again against Israel
BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (AFP) - The leader of a radical Palestinian group which
hijacked a cruise ship in 1985 has vowed to resume anti-Israeli attacks
after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's call for a jihad against the Jewish
state.
"The call for jihad by Saddam Hussein is, for us, an order to fight the
enemy. We are going to resume confrontration with the enemy and relaunch the
revolution," Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) leader Mohammad Abbas, known
by his nom-de-guerre Abul Abbas, told Iraqi television on Wednesday night.
"It is time that the intifada passed from stone throwing to (taking up) arms
against the Zionist enemy which understands only the language of force,"
said Abul Abbas who lives in Baghdad under the regime's protection.
Abul Abbas was speaking on a programme about the two-week-old bloody clashes
between Palestinians and Israeli forces that have left more than 100 dead
and around 3,000 wounded.
The PLF is best known for its hijacking in October 1985 of the Italian
cruise boat, the Achille Lauro, during which the group killed one of its 400
passengers, an American Jew in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer.
On Saddam's orders, Iraq has been mobilising volunteers for "the jihad (holy
war) in Palestine", as well as opening up camps for military training.
Russian airline to send three humanitarian flights to Iraq
Text of report in English by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS Moscow, 12th
October: A spokesman for Vnukovo Airlines (VAL), a big domestic air carrier,
said today the company was expected to send three humanitarian flights to
Iraq in October and November.
"VAL will launch flights to Baghdad on 27th October, 3rd November and 10th
November. They were all freighted by the Committee for International
Cultural, Scientific, Technical and Business Cooperation with Iraq," Aleksey
Sapkin told ITAR-TASS. Meanwhile, Sapkin denied reports that VAL was going
to resume regular flights to Iraq from 27th October. The committee ordered a
plane for Iraq in late September, when a 100-strong delegation visited the
sanction-battered nation
Iraq defeat Thailand in Asian Cup
SAIDA, Lebanon, Oct 12 (AFP) - Iraq beat Thailand 2-0 in the opening match
of the Asian Cup here Thursday.
Goals from Qahtan Chatir and Haidar Mahmood clinched victory for the Iraqis
in a lacklustre Group A match at the Saida Stadium.
Iran minister delays Iraq visit
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Iraqi officials said Thursday that Iranian
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has delayed his visit to Iraq due to his
urgent visits to Syria and Lebanon to discuss the growing tension on the
Lebanese-Israeli borders. Kharrazi was due to visit the Iraqi capital,
Baghdad, Thursday.
Lack of equipment seen keeping Iraq from hiking oil exports
By Gelu Sulugiuc, BridgeNews New York--Oct. 12--Even if Turkey allows Iraq
to ship more oil through twin pipelines to Ceyhan, Iraq would not be able to
increase exports for at least six to eight months because it is waiting for
a delivery of key equipment, sources at the U.N. Office of the Iraq Program
said.
Iraq now exports 700,000-900,000 bpd to the Mediterranean port, as only one
of the two pipelines is operational. Turkey threatened to allow Iraq to
export as much as 1.5 million bpd in an apparent campaign to discourage the
passage of a U.S. congressional bill finding Turkey responsible for the
genocide of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.
The decision to actually increase throughput rests with Iraq, but Baghdad
can't pump more oil across its northern border until it buys metering
equipment for the idle pipeline.
"Iraq tried to buy the equipment, and the contract is now off hold," said
John Mills, spokesman of the Iraq Program. "But it would take six to eight
months for it to arrive in Iraq, and then you have to allow for the time to
install it." Mills also raised questions about the overall quality of the
twin pipelines and whether they could sustain an increase in throughput.
The Turkish government is considering the purchase of oil pumps to hand over
to Iraq to allow sustained pumping at an increased level, a senior aide in
Turkish pipeline agency Botas told BridgeNews Thursday.
The direct sale and delivery of the pumps by Germany's Thyssen to Iraq
remained under consideration by a U.N. panel, and informed sources say
approval was being delayed.
The Botas source said that the government was consequently considering the
purchase itself of the pumps, and their sale to Iraq, which could contravene
U.N. sanctions.
At present, the pipeline is pumping between 700,000-900,000 bpd, depending
on tanker lifting schedules and available storage at the pipeline's Ceyhan
terminal in Turkey's eastern Mediterranean Iskenderun Gulf.
Iraq's ability to sustain current oil production levels of around 3 million
bpd is under pressure from the slow rate of approval of spare parts for its
crumbling oil infrastructure by the UN Sanctions Committee in New York. The
US routinely holds up the import of spare parts to Iraq, which are
individually checked to ensure they are not capable of dual use in military
contexts.
Iraq exports some 2.3 mln bpd, while the rest is used domestically or in
land-border trade with Jordan and Turkey.
Iraq threatens to halt oil exports over funds held in UN account official
BAGHDAD (AFX) - Iraq could suspend oil exports if the United Nations fails
to convert to euros billions of Iraqi dollars blocked in a special account,
the central bank's deputy governor told a weekly newspaper.
Two planes to deliver relief food, medicine for the Iraqi people
Text of report in English by Sudanese news agency Suna on 11th October
Khartoum, 11th October: Two Sudanese planes will leave on Thursday [12th
October] for the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, carrying 30 tonnes of food
materials and medicines in support of the Iraqi people.
The planes will carry a high level delegation of the People's
Committee for Supporting the Iraqi People, headed by the
minister of social planning, Dr Qutbi al-Mahdi, and the wali
(governor) of Khartoum State, Dr Majdhub al-Khalifah. In a press statement,
the dean of the Sudanese Bar Association and chairman of the People's
Committee for Supporting the Iraqi people, Fathi Khalil, said that the
flights are aimed at reflecting the Sudanese people's support to their Iraqi
brothers who had been suffering from the blockade for ten years.
Khalil explained that these flights are not the first Sudanese
planes to leave for Iraq , because the foremost plane to land in
Iraq after the war in October 1992 was a Sudanese one which
delivered quantities of food. Khalil said that the delegation, which will
convey Sudan's support to the Iraqi people, includes representatives of the
people's organizations and the workers, herdsmen, farmers, students, youth,
doctors and pharmacists unions, along with representatives of the political
parties and associations.
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