Arab, international contacts to lift sanctions imposed on Iraq
Regional-Iraq, Politics, 5/31/2001

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa stressed that the American-British proposed smart sanctions regime is still unclear to all Arabs so far.

There are a lot of question marks surrounding the smart sanctions proposal, Moussa said, referring to Arab consensus at Aman Summit on lifting for good the ten-year UN sanctions against Iraq, and not classifying them as smart or otherwise.

He said that the Arab League is following up with Arab sides and the UN what is going on between the five permanent UN Security Council member states about this issue.

What is important is not what the UN Security Council will issue but what can be implemented in light of the Arab public opinion seeing the importance of lifting these crippling sanctions. "So the Arab world is not interested whether these sanctions are smart or not," Moussa added.

About holding Iraq responsible for refusing any initiative to lift the sanctions, Moussa said "I do not think Iraq is refusing any initiative in this respect but it has an opinion when it comes to the so-called smart sanctions".

"Iraq sees that the new regime is a mere decorative form of the current sanctions," Moussa said.

"It is not in the interest of the UNSC to pass a resolution that will be inapplicable for lack of conviction," Moussa added.

"The UNSC should come out with a resolution that complies with the public opinion's aspirations to end the suffering of the Iraqis," he added.

About Kuwait's stance, Moussa said, "of course, the Kuwaiti side has the full right to feel secure and safe and to receive guarantees, and what happened in 1990 will not be repeated. We are working on ensuring the safety of Kuwait from any threats either at present or in the future."

Previous Stories:
  US Smart sanctions are a failure   (5/16/2001)
  Saddam warns against Israel's strikes against Jordan, or Syria   (5/8/2001)
  Iraqi president and the Arab states   (4/10/2001)

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