IRAQ SANCTIONS MONITOR Number 178
Friday, December 29, 2000
____________________________________________________________________________
_______
Christmas...Eid....The New Year.... IT'S 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
Talks With U.N. Should Respect Iraq's Principles: Report
BAGHDAD (Dec. 29) XINHUA - The upcoming talks between Iraq and the United
Nations next month should respect Iraq's principles, a report carried by the
official daily Al-Iraq said on Friday.
Under the four principles, the talks with the U.N. should be aimed at
lifting the decade-old U.N. sanctions; the U.N. should recognize the "great"
efforts Iraq has made in implementing the U. N. resolutions on the Iraqi
issue; Iraq should be allowed to freely use its natural resources and no
country can be allowed to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs.
Iraq is ready to have "constructive" talks with U.N. Secretary- General Kofi
Annan or any U.N. organizations, the report said, stressing that the talks
should respect the principles put forward by the Iraqi government.
Annan has expressed that the hope that the upcoming talks between U.N. and
Iraq will be able to break the impasse over weapons inspection in the
country.
At a year-end press conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York on
December 19, the U.N. chief said he and Iraqi officials planned to begin
talks in New York in early January as the Iraqi issue remained a challenge
for the world's leading body.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz has said that Iraq was ready to hold
"a comprehensive dialog" with the U.N. with no preconditions and that the
dialog must not be conditioned on that Iraq accepts the U.N. Resolution
1284.
The U.N. resolution, adopted last December, offered to suspend the sanctions
for renewable periods of 120 days if Iraq shows " full" cooperation with the
U.N. arms inspectors.
Iraq has rejected the resolution and barred the return of the U. N. arms
inspectors who left the country at the end of 1998 shortly before the United
States and Britain launched air strikes against Iraq.
Iraq has been under U.N. sanctions ever since it invaded Kuwait in 1990, and
the sanctions will not be lifted until the U.N. arms inspectors report that
Iraq is clear of weapons of mass destruction.
_______________________________________________________
POLITICS Rumsfeld
>From PA NEWS, December 29th, 2000
Announcing the appointment yesterday, President-elect Bush said Mr Rumsfeld
would work to secure a pay rise for the military, forces modernisation and a
budget to make sure that missile defence had the priority it merited.
He said Mr Rumsfeld's report on missile threats provided ``a compelling
argument for the need for the United States to develop a missile defence
system that'll work.'' That view was endorsed in July this year by former
Tory Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher.
In a speech to the Hoover Institution in the US, Lady Thatcher warned: ``In
1998, the Rumsfeld report to the US Congress noted that countries such as
North Korea, Iran and Iraq `would be able to inflict major destruction on
the United States within about five years of a decision to acquire the
capability' ...
``It is the activities of rogue states and the possibility of unplanned
launches of missiles armed with warheads which should now be our main
concern.
We must also be able to prevent the intimidation of friendly states such as
Taiwan. The way to achieve this is through the construction of a global
system of ballistic missile defence.'' Mr Rumsfeld's views on missile
defence are well known, but EU leaders in particular will be keen to learn
more of his attitude to Europe's new rapid reaction force.
The outgoing Democrat defence secretary, William Cohen, voiced fears that
the EU force could make Nato a relic, and similar views have been expressed
by prominent politicians on both sides of the Democrat-Republican divide.
That nervousness about the European plan, however, may be counterbalanced by
Mr Bush's avowed intention to scale back US troop involvement in foreign
military missions, an approach which Mr Rumsfeld will have to implement.
Mr Bush has talked of replacing ``uncertain missions with well-defined
objectives'' and reassessing ``open-ended deployments''.
That is likely to mean a gradual recall of American troops from the Balkans,
leaving Europe to manage the Nato peacekeeping mission in the region.
US troops currently make up around a fifth of the 65,000-strong Nato
peacekeeping force in the Balkans.
Under the Bush plan, keeping the peace in Bosnia and Kosovo would fall to
Europe, while the US would focus its military energies on the Persian Gulf,
Asia, and other regions in which America's national interests are directly
involved.
_____________________________________________________
Iraq Urges AL Intervention to Halt U.S., British Aggressions
BAGHDAD (Dec. 29) XINHUA - Iraq Friday urged the Arab League (AL) to
intervene to halt "the continuous aggressions" by the United States and
Britain, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
In a letter to AL Secretary-General Ahmed Esmat Abdel-Meguid on Friday,
Iraqi
Foreign Minister Mohamad Said Al-Sahaf elaborated the continuous aggressions
by the U.S. and British warplanes on December 9-15.
The infringement were aimed at "harming Iraq's sovereignty, territorial
integrity, infrastructure, civilians and civil installations," Sahaf said.
Moreover, "We ask you to demand the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments to stop
their logistic support to the aggressions," he added.
Sahaf accused Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as "full partners" in the U.S. and
British aggressions against Iraq, the INA said.
U.S. and British aircraft use bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to mount
their
patrols and bombings of the southern no-fly zone which was imposed after the
1991 Gulf War, with the so-called aim of protecting the region's Shi'ite
Muslims from "the persecution of President Saddam Hussein."
A similar zone was imposed over northern Iraq with a claim to protect the
Kurdish community there. Baghdad has never recognized the no-fly zones,
saying
their imposition has never been authorized by United Nations resolutions.
_______________________________________________________
Iraq ready to resume UN talks when embargo is lifted: paper
BAGHDAD, Dec 29 (AFP) - Baghdad is ready to resume dialogue with the United
Nations on condition that the crippling decade-old embargo imposed on it is
lifted immediately, Al-Iraq newspaper said Friday.
"Iraq is not opposed to a constructive and fair dialogue with the United
Nations and its secretary-general (Kofi Annan) as long as that involves no
preconditions" on the part of the world body, the paper said.
"The United Nations must take into account fundamental issues to start this
dialogue including the immediate lifting of the unjust embargo imposed on
Iraq, " it said.
The paper said the organisation "must also recognise the great efforts
undertaken by Iraq and the fact that the country has conformed to all UN
Security Council resolutions" tied to Iraq's 1990 occupation of Kuwait.
Baghdad and the United Nations are expected to reopen a dialogue in January,
more than a year after a UN Security Council resolution, introduced in
December 1999, offered a suspension of sanctions in return for Iraq's
cooperation with a new arms control regime.
There have been no arms control inspections in Iraq since the UN evacuated
its inspection team from the country in December 1998 shortly before air
raids by the United States and Britain.
______________________________________________________
Kuwait Urges Iraq to Abide by U.N. Resolutions
KUWAIT CITY (Dec. 29) XINHUA - Kuwait on Friday called on Iraq to implement
all the United Nations resolutions related to its invasion of Kuwait before
talking
about reconciliation with its Gulf neighbors.
"When Iraqis talk about dialogues with countries in the region, people
should
feel that Iraq has a true desire in this respect," Kuwaiti Foreign Minister
Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told reporters before leaving for Manama,
Bahrain, to attend the foreign ministers' meeting of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC).
_______________________________________________________
Iraq calls for dialogue with Kuwait, Saudi on eve of Gulf summit
BAGHDAD, Dec 28 (AFP) - Iraq's ruling Baath party called Thursday ahead of a
Gulf summit for dialogue with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait aimed at a
reconciliation with its neighbours after a decade of enmity.
The Muslim and Christian holidays "could be an opportunity for ... a
constructive dialogue to forget the pains of the past and reach a
reconciliation ending division and humiliation," said the party's
mouthpiece, Ath-Thawra.
In reference to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which were not named, Ath-Thawra
said its invitation was addressed to "those whom Satan has deviated from the
path of jihad," or holy war.
The two neighbours had "allied themselves with the US-Zionist enemy in
thinking that they could thus break the determination of the Arab world to
struggle for its rights," said Ath-Thawra.
It urged Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which provide air bases for US and British
warplanes to overfly Iraq, to revise their policies.
tel: +44 (0)20 7403 5200
fax: +44 (0)20 7403 3823
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: www.mariamappeal.com
