Iraq complains against US prevention of 2000 civilian contracts

The Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri has stressed that the American- British interference have obstructed the work progress of the "oil for food program" and resulted in suspending more than 2000 civilian contracts at a cost of $ 5 billion under illegal and non humanitarian pretexts.

In a statement issued by the Iraqi foreign ministry on Wednesday, Sabri said that the recent British- US practices in imposing oil prices, that are not at market value, on the memorandum of understanding resulted in a large reduction of the program's revenues. He explained that this policy is a new form of the policy aiming at suspending contracts with the aim of depriving Iraq from benefiting from its resources to meet its basic humanitarian needs.

This comes as Iraq said, as reported by INA yesterday, that the US "terrorist aggression" through "the air raids launched by US and British warplanes on Iraqi cities, villages and infrastructure is a flagrant aggression, continued state terrorism and rough interference in Iraq’s internal affairs. Iraq affirmed that the U.S. and British imposition of the so-called no-fly zones on southern and northern Iraq is a blatant violation of UN Charter, international law and Security Council resolutions which stressed on respecting Iraq’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence. It is an armed aggression on Iraq since 1991."