US and British vengeance to destroy and control a nation's potential and development
Iraq-USA, Politics, 5/8/2002

Iraq has stressed on Tuesday that the US and Britain are obstructing finalizing of contracts at a cost of USD 8 billion in the framework of the UN oil-for-food program.

The Iraqi minister of trade Muhammad Mahdi Saleh said that the US and Britain are obstructing the signing of 2590 contracts including 747 to buy oil industrial equipment and spare parts, other 535 for buying foodstuffs and medicines; 328 for agriculture, 217 for water and drainage and 193 for electricity.

Iraqis have said the sanctions are being used to prevent Iraq from building its industrial capabilities to meet its own needs, and to weaken Iraq further by keeping it a consumption economy, with little else for income other than oil, to prevent it from developing and using its economic resources to be able to improve its economic condition in meeting its people's needs for development; all under the pretense for the need to prevent Iraq in the future from developing alleged and so-called weapons of mass destruction. The US had said that it views Iraq as an impediment and a threat to the implementation of US policy in the region. This threat is not only at the regional geo-strategic level, and future potential, but also to such an extent, that even for Iraq to merely have well developed scientists is viewed as a threat, all under the guise of their potential for so-called dual-use (commercial-military) purpose, a pretext that is also used to prevent commercial industrial capabilities and needs. Experts note that such a policy is aimed at the heart of Arab and Iranian development as well. The US is aiming to make the sanctions more "humane;" an effort that is seen aimed to merely make the sanctions more palatable and thus more sustainable. US officials had stressed repeatedly in the past that Iraq "will never see the sanctions off."

Saleh accused both the US and Britain of attempting to inflect damages on Iraq through their control of the UN Security Council and pressuring the committee in charge of supervising the oil-for-food contracts in order to prevent Baghdad from benefiting from its own money, stressing that lifting the sanctions imposed on his country is the only solution to end the sufferings of the Iraqi people.

Previous Stories:
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  US: Iraq is a strategic threat to implementing US policy in the Middle East   (2/4/2002)
  Interview: US views on Iraq   (4/21/2000)
  What has a Catholic priest to say about Iraq   (2/18/1998)
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