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Saddam wants revolution in Palestine

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December 11, 2000 

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraq pledged Saturday to allocate some $881 million in oil revenues to support the Palestinian uprising, the official Iraqi News Agency said.

The agency was quoting a statement issued after a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and the Iraq Regional Command of al-Baath Party, chaired by President Saddam Hussein. The members agreed to allocate $264 million to support the families of Palestinian martyrs, with the remaining $617 million to go toward the purchase of food, medicine and humanitarian needs. The money would be donated in euros.

More than 300 people, most Palestinians, have been killed in more than two months of fighting in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The Iraqi News Agency said the donated money would be deducted from its oil export income.

The four-year-old U.N. oil-for-food program has generated $38 billion in revenue for Iraq, most of it for humanitarian programs and to fund Gulf War reparations and U.N. operations. The program was launched to help ordinary Iraqis cope with the effects of U.N. sanctions imposed to punish Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

However, under the program, all profits from Iraqi exports go into an escrow bank account in New York. Iraq cannot spend the money without approval from the United Nations. Saturday's meeting also discussed whether to extend the program, but Iraqi News Agency did not say if the Iraqi leadership accepted the extension.

Iraq long has opposed the program, arguing that it only serves to perpetuate sanctions that it wants lifted immediately. Under Security Council resolution, sanctions can be lifted only after U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq's weapons programs have been dismantled.

``The program was supposed to be a temporary measure ... but America and Britain are dealing with it as an alternative for the total lifting of sanctions and as a permanent measure,'' the statement said. ``This ignorance toward Iraq's rights will make them find out the dangers of their policies, in addition to their lack of legal basis.''