Britain and America still take a hard line against Iraq, but other
              countries and large corporations can't keep
              away.

              Special report: Iraq

              Peter Beaumont
              Sunday November 5, 2000
              The Observer

              The vast marble halls of Saddam International Airport have not been so
              busy in a decade. On Tuesday seven international flights
              touched down at the massive complex on the outskirts of Baghdad
              including aircraft from Turkey, Lebanon, Russia and the United
              Arab Emirates, all carrying officials and business delegations for the
              opening of the annual Baghdad trade fair, the biggest since it
              resumed business in 1995.

              Among those who were greeted by Iraqi press and officials and walked
              through the almost deserted arrivals area last Tuesday
              was an Irish MEP, Niall Andrews, who had travelled on the first flight
              since 1991 from Dublin.

              His journey via Bucharest to Baghdad in an eight-seater aircraft,
              carrying £10,000 worth of medicines for the children of Iraq was,
              he admits, intended as a symbolic gesture against a sanctions regime he
              believes is redundant and repellent.

              Andrews could not ignore the most obvious evidence of the UN Security
              Council's rapidly unravelling sanctions regime against Iraq
              - a giant Tu-154 that arrived from Moscow with 50 parliamentarians and
              businessmen led by Pyotr Romanov, Communist Deputy
              Speaker of the Duma. The significance of the Russian plane was simple: a
              bold statement by one of the five permanent members
              of the UN's Security Council that, along with fellow members France and
              China, it has grown weary of America's and Britain's
              continuing 'war' against Iraq. Iraq and Russia have negotiated the
              resumption of 'charter flights' between Moscow and Baghdad,
              which would be a violation of the flight ban and 'two no-fly zones'
              established by the West after the invasion of Kuwait. Jordan -
              say sources - is not be far behind.

              It is not only businessmen and politicians who have been pouring into
              Baghdad in recent weeks. Soccer players, entertainers,
              intellectuals - all from the Arab world - have been visiting Baghdad to
              show their solidarity with President Saddam Hussein for his
              support of the Palestinian cause.

              The decade-long international sanctions regime against Iraq appears in
              danger of complete collapse. Since August more than 40
              'humanitarian' flights have flown into Iraq. An increasing number,
              Russian flights among them, are refusing to seek explicit
              permission from Britain and the US to fly, save to file their flight
              plans.

              Even as US and British military aircraft last week launched their latest
              attack on targets inside Iraq, Saddam was hosting the
              most senior diplomatic figure to visit since the Gulf War, the Jordanian
              Prime Minister, Ali Abu al-Ragheb, who flew to Baghdad
              last week with 100 journalists and officials to 'promote good relations
              between the two countries'. This visit and that of the other
              international parliamentarians came as officials in the US and the UK
              launched a counter-offensive to maintain their hardline
              position against Iraq.

              Last week the Foreign Office went into overdrive to remind the British
              public of the continuing corruption and bestiality of
              Saddam's regime, including reports of the beheading of 30 prostitutes in
              Basra whose heads were allegedly hung outside their
              doors. The US, citing an increased level of threat by Iraq against Saudi
              Arabia and Kuwait, has put its troops on heightened alert.
              What they fear is that Iraq - and Saddam - are being rehabilitated by
              stealth through selfish commercial interests despite his
              refusal to readmit United Nations weapons inspectors to Baghdad.

              They believe Saddam has manipulated the Israeli crisis, and President
              Bill Clinton's withdrawal from a wider stage in the run-up to
              the US elections, to strengthen his hand in the Arab world and the wider
              international community.

              What is true is that what is driving the sudden renewed enthusiasm for
              Iraq is the lure of lucrative contracts linked to the high oil
              price. This year Iraq will pump $24 billion under the UN-administered
              oil-for food programme imposed to prevent the country using
              its oil receipts to fund the building of weapons of mass destruction. In
              addition, on the basis of current estimates, Saddam's
              regime will also earn more than $1 billion from oil illegally exported,
              which officials say will be used to prop up Saddam's regime.

              'The Baghdad trade fair last week was packed,' Niall Andrews told The
              Observer. 'There were firms there from Germany, France,
              Spain, Finland. There was even a company there from Ireland for the
              first time since the Gulf War. What was most extraordinary
              was that there was a pavilion from Iran [Iraq's long-term enemy from the
              first Gulf War].'

              'It is simple,' says an Iraqi opponent of Saddam's regime. 'Saddam knows
              that the best way to overturn the sanctions regime
              without making any concessions over the arms inspections is to appeal to
              international greed. That is where the real pressure will
              tell on Britain and the US - from their own business interests.'

              It is a claim borne out by the ambitions of some of the biggest players
              in the oil business who have made clear they are waiting
              for the end of sanctions to move in. A survey by Deutsche Bank showed
              that Western companies interested in Iraq include the
              world's largest energy companies: ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell and BP.
              'Total, Repsol and ENI have also kept in touch,' the
              bank's October 2000 industry review said. France's TotalfinaElf has
              secured exclusive negotiating rights for the huge Majnoon and
              Bin Umar fields and has been close to signing deals for some time.

              The position of Britain and the US has been undermined by the
              recognition earlier this year by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
              of the 'moral dilemma' posed by sanctions, in particular the impact on
              the health of ordinary Iraqis, and children in particular.

              Annan said the UN was in danger of losing the propaganda war - 'if we
              haven't already lost it' - about who is responsible for this
              situation. 'Is it Saddam Hussein or the United Nations?' he asked. Annan
              is concerned by a report from Unicef that detailed the
              harm being done to Iraqi children by UN sanctions.

              Andrews has joined a chorus of protest against the sanctions which, he
              believes, are in urgent need of reconsideration. Ironically,
              among them are Iraqi opponents of Saddam. 'The sanctions regime is
              helping to keep Saddam in power,' said one opposition
              analyst. 'They keep people poor and dependent on the regime. There needs
              to be an urgent reappraisal.'