Egyptian Pharmacists start economic boycott of US -UK; Arab protests continue
Regional-Regional, Politics, 12/21/1998

The Egyptian Pharmacists Union has called for boycotting medicines produced by Turkey by two American medicine companies and one British company during the holy month of Ramadan to protest the US and British air strikes against Iraq.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Egyptian union called for boycotting medicines produced by the American Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb and the British Glaxo Wellcome pharmaceutical companies, noting that this boycott would not affect drug needs in Egypt because substitutes are available through other foreign companies.

Other Egyptian trade unions called for announcing an economic war against Washington and London and called on pharmacies to hang posters demanding citizens to boycott American and British medicines.

Meanwhile, the Teachers Union in Egypt denounced in a statement yesterday the military operations launched by the US and Britain against Iraq. Union chief Kamal Helmi stated the union's conviction that there are double standards practiced in dealing with the region's countries, as the U.S.A overlooks Israeli violations of the rules of international legitimacy by occupying the Palestinian lands and parts of Syria and Lebanon. The union urged the UN Security Council to convene immediately to lift the sanctions from Iraq.

Meanwhile, Egyptian opposition parties, political forces, representatives of unions and human rights organizations continued their meetings on the US - British strikes against Iraq, as 14 organizations released a united statement under the title, "Free the Egyptian people to cooperate with the Iraqi people," which included strong criticism of the US and Britain.

The statement also expressed the sorrow of the organizations toward the formal stance of Egyptian government and criticized the Egyptian government's confrontation of demonstrations, as classes were stopped in Egyptian universities and students continued the burning of US, Israeli and British flags.

The Egyptian Red Crescent has announced it will send urgent humanitarian aid to Iraq, valued at US $30,000. The secretary general of the Egyptian Red Cross Society, Mamdouh Jaber, said the society has decided to send urgent aid to Iraq, including relief items and medicines, as an assertion of the solidarity of the Egyptian people with Iraq.

In Morocco, some 20,000 persons took part Sunday in a march in Rabat to express solidarity with the Iraqi people following the US-British raids against Iraq, MAP quoted a source close to the Interior Ministry as saying.

The national committee of support to the Iraqi people, which sponsored the march, announced Saturday that the march had been postponed, pending the authorization of public authorities.

However as some organizations and members of the committee were not informed of the postponement, they gathered in Rabat as initially scheduled and public authorities finally authorized the march, the Interior Ministry source said.

Several similar rallies and protest movements were held in other Moroccan cities to denounce the raids against Iraq.

Moroccan political parties continued to criticize the military actions and the "National Rally of Independents" (RNI) stated that this "bellicose and immature act threatens international security and peace." The RNI stresses that once again Iraq is targeted by a violent military aggression and once again international law is violated blatantly under pretexts.

The Moroccan house of representatives will hold this Monday a plenary session in solidarity with the Iraqi people, as more reactions condemning the US-British raids continued to be expressed by political parties, associations and students all over Morocco.

Most Arab states on Sunday witnessed a new wave of demonstrations held in protest against the US - British attacks on Iraq. In Tripoli, Libya, demonstrators carried banners condeming the US - British attacks against Iraq. They denounced the double-standard policy they said the US is adopting in the region by imposing an embargo on several Arab states and striking Iraq.

In Beirut, the chief of the Foreign Department of the Social Syrian Nationalist Party, Tawfiq Mohanna, denounced the attacks on Iraq. He said in a Sunday statement that the US bypassed the suspicious rules of the arms inspection team in Iraq and had the objective of wiping out all the achievements of the Iraqi people. "The objective has been a Zionist end " Mohanna said.

In Amman, the Jordanian parliament denounced the attack on Iraq in a session held on Sunday. The Parliament described the attacks as brutal and barbaric, saying they disclosed the fragility and weakness of the UN Security Council.

The chairman of the Jordanian Bar Association, Hussein Majali, delivered a speech at a demonstration held in Amman, in which he extended greetings to the Syrian people and highly praised the march they organized in protest against the US - British strikes against Iraq.

He called for unifying Arab positions and ranks and condemned the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the Golan and south Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdul Meguid said in statements broadcast by Monte Carlo radio on Sunday, that the AL and the Arab states condemned Operation Desert Fov which is an open attack and a grave violation of international legitimacy. The AL chief noted the importance of effective efforts to bring legitimacy and international law back to normality.

Previous Stories:
  Saddam Hussein praises his people; regional reaction   (12/21/1998)
  US stops its attack against Iraq   (12/19/1998)
  Moussa hopes to contain Iraqi situation - regional reaction   (12/19/1998)
  Iraq: Life goes on   (12/19/1998)
  On Arab states reaction to the aggression against Iraq   (12/19/1998)

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