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Iraqi leader says U.N. sanctions collapsing

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November 2, 2000 

BAGHDAD (AP) - A senior Iraqi leader, pleased with the wide foreign participation in this year's Baghdad International Fair, declared Wednesday that U.N. sanctions against his country are crumbling despite U.S. and British insistence on keeping them in place.

Addressing 12 foreign trade ministers and about 18,000 foreign businesspeople representing 45 countries and more than 1,500 firms, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said their participation "indicates the outstanding position of the country on commercial and international arenas."

Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh said Iraq would have welcomed Americans had they asked to take part. The United States and Britain have taken the hardest line on the sanctions, saying they cannot be lifted unless Iraq proves it has surrendered weapons of mass destruction.

"The embargo has started fizzling, God willing, with all the excuses for keeping it in place falling away," Ramadan said.

Ramadan urged countries taking part in the trade fair to ignore U.N. rules restricting civilian flights to Iraq. Baghdad has seen an influx of flights recently; eight more planes arriving Tuesday. Most foreign ministers and senior officials participating in the exhibition flew to Iraq for this year's fair.

The ministers and businesspeople were hoping to expand exports to Iraq under the terms of the U.N.-approved program that allows Iraq it to export as much crude oil as it can afford. Most of the proceeds must be used to buy food, medicine and other necessities for the Iraqi people.

Iraq's oil exports earnings are expected to reach dlrs 18 billion this year.

But Ramadan expressed frustration with the program, accusing the United Nations of squandering Iraq's oil revenues instead of using them to ease the suffering of Iraqi people he blamed on the sanctions imposed for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

He said the program was being primarily used to cater for U.N. personnel involved in implementing it and compensate those affected by Iraq's conquest of Kuwait.

Since exporting oil under U.N. conditions in 1996, Iraq has earned more than dlrs 30 billion. But Ramadan said only dlrs 8.3 billion worth of food, medicine and other essential needs have reached Iraq while the United Nations has deducted more than dlrs 12 billion to cover costs involved in administering the program and 1991 Gulf War reparations.

Some 30 percent of Iraqi oil money is earmarked for a U.N. reparations fund established to compensate the victims of Iraq's 1991 invasion of Kuwait.

Despite his critical remarks, Ramadan did not say Iraq would abandon the program when it next comes up for review in early December. Iraqi officials periodically level criticism at the program.