Arab League chief calls on Iraq to solve crisis with UN
Iraq-Regional, Politics, 11/3/1998

Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdul Meguid called on Iraq for a quick settlment of its current problems with the United Nations, fearing the negative effects will be felt by the Iraqi people.

In a communique to Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, which Iraqi AL envoy Nabil Negm received yesterday, Abdul Meguid said the outcome of communications he held with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan indicated that Iraq has more flexibility, specifically that the UN greatly understands the Iraqi point of view demanding a comprehensive and serious review of what has been implemented from Security Council resolutions.

Meanwhile at the UN, the General Assembly voted yesterday 113-1 to urge Iraq to resume cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency immediately.

Annan yesterday called the Iraqi decision to suspend cooperation with weapons inspectors a "total breach" of Security Council resolutions and said the issue would be the subject of further discussions this week.

Meanwhile, Answering a question on Iraq's decision to stop dealing with the UNSCOM international weapons inspection committee, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa expressed his hope that the situation will not escalate further, and that the Security Council will respond to "well-grounded doubts regarding the performance of the arms inspection team" in dealing with the unsettled files. "If there is something wrong in the team's operations it must be corrected and everything must be done to make sure that it does not happen again," he said.

Previous Stories:
  Iraqi parliament approves decision to suspend cooperation with UNSCOM   (11/3/1998)
  Aziz: Iraq does not seek confrontation with UN   (11/2/1998)
  Iraq halts UNSCOM cooperation   (10/31/1998)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search