Aziz confers with the speaker of the Cuban parliament

Iraq's deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz on Sunday in Baghdad announced that the policy of imposing no free zones in the northern and southern parts of Iraq by the USA has failed militarily, politically and diplomatically.

During his meeting with the speaker of the Cuban parliament Ricardo Alarcon, currently visiting Baghdad, Aziz added that the policy of imposing no fly zone was doomed to failure, noting that the battle launched by both Iraq and Cuba stems from the same objectives in maintaining care to their sovereignty and independence and that the embargo on Iraq has been diminishing at the Arab and international levels.

For his part, the Cuban official stressed his country's full backing to Iraq and its condemnation to the US raids against its territories.

Meantime, the speaker of the Cuban parliament discussed with the chairman of the Iraqi national council Saadoun Hammadi on Saturday in Baghdad means of developing bilateral cooperation relations in all fields between Cuba and Iraq.

The Cuban parliament speaker, who is in an official visit to Iraq which will last for several days said that the meeting dealt with strengthening joint relations and the need of coordinating efforts and stances in international circles and parliaments. He expressed the Cuban parliament's readiness to cooperate with the Iraqi parliament in all fields and to coordinate joint stances towards world parliamentary work in support of the just causes of peoples.

Hammadi, for his part, expressed his appreciation over Cuba's positive stances in supporting Iraq's serious attempt to end the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people.