Iraq is persisent to develop air defenses, Naji Sabri appointed as foreign miniser

Iraq on Sunday stressed determination to continue developing its air defenses with the aim to down American or British planes, despite the American threats to retaliate.

This was expressed on the wake of a government reshuffle in Iraq according to which Naji Sabri was appointed as the foreign minister instead of Tareq Aziz who used to occupy this post, besides his position as a deputy prime minister.

To this effect, the Iraqi news agency said that two Presidential decrees were issued on Saturday. The first stated to exempt Tareq Aziz from his post as an acting foreign minister and the second stated to appoint Naji Sabri, who during the Gulf war in 1991 had the post of the secretary of the ministry of information and culture and the foreign minister.

On April 18 three Presidential decrees were released by the Iraqi President. The first stated to exempt the foreign minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf from his post and appointing him as a minister of information. The second decree stated to appoint Tareq Aziz as an acting foreign ministers together with keeping his post as a deputy premier, while the third decree stated to appoint Naji Sabri who used to be Iraq's ambassador to Austria, as a minister of state for foreign affairs ( which is a new post in Iraq).

On the other hand, the Iraqi oil minister Amer Rasheed said that his country will be during few years the country " number one " in the world concerning oil reserves ( 270 billion barrels) and thereby to precede Saudi Arabia, which at the meantime occupies this grade with a reserve estimated at 240 billion barrels.