Iraq: USA wants to dominate Iraq, which aspires
to real Arab support
Iraq, Politics, 2/12/2000
Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mahdi Saleh asserted that
the USA is behind the continuation of the international
sanctions on Iraq and that it wants to occupy and control Iraq,
which is not going to be possible because of the Iraqi people's
and government's insistence on Iraq's independence no matter
how long the sanctions last.
In a special interview with ArabicNews.com during his current
visit to Cairo, the Iraqi minister said the crises between Iraq
and the USA started two years before the Kuwaiti - Iraqi
crises and that the first sanctions resolution on Iraq came in
1988-- two months after the end of the Iraqi - Iranian war.
He added that USA's goal is to destroy the Iraqi power and
for Israel to remain as the primary power in the area, asserting
that had Kuwait been a militarily and industrially as strong as
Iraq, the US would have destroyed it.
Saleh said his country had only received $6 billion dollars from
the oil-for-food program during the last three years while the
UN received $7.7 billion, and there are still $8.2 billion
delayed by the USA. He said the oil for food program turned
into oil for the United Nations' expenditures.
Saleh denied having secret communications with Israel, saying,
"We do not have doubled policies like what happens in some
countries, and we only say the truth. Our goals are clear, and if
we opened our relations with Israel, the seige would be uplifted
by tomorrow, yet this will not happen no matter how much
longer the siege remains," saying that the UN Security
Council's last resolution does not concern Iraq and depicting it
as being mysterious and inapplicable because it gave Iraq no
right to have the sanctions removed.
He depicted the recent seizure of a Russian ship by the USA
under the pretext of carrying Iraqi oil as a U.S violation of the
US's charter and international law and that Russia has the right
to withdraw oil from Iraq according to article 50 of the UN's
charter.
Concerning the request of Arab League Secretary General
Esmat Abdul Meguid that Iraq apologize to Kuwait for what
happened in 1990, Saleh said, "Presenting an apology to
Kuwait is related to issues that are raised by the USA," and
that this request is a formality that must not be stuck to because
someone who wants to end a dispute does not require an
apology since the crises between Iraq and Kuwait did not arise
out of nothing, the misiter said. He added that Iraq supports
solving all the problems to reach a compromise so that
relations can return to normal among the Arab states.
Mahdi said, "The Iraqi - Iranian war lasted more than eight
years in which thousands were killed and injured, and it was
among the largest wars, yet the diplomacy and relations were
resumed between the two countries without an apology from
one country to another, and this never happened before in any
country in history, as the Iraqi - Kuwaiti crises is not the first in
history and it will not be the last."
Saleh asserted that Iraq's relations with the Gulf states are
witnessing a relief with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar and Oman, and commercial exchange with the
UAE reached more than $400 million last year. He added that
comercial relations reached $100 million with Qatar and nearly
$40 million with Saudi Arabia, expressing his hope that the
seventh term of the oil-for-food agreement will witness an
increase in the commercial exchange between Iraq and the
Arab states.