Iraq cancels scheduled trade mission to Beirut

Baghdad canceled a visit by an Iraqi trade delegation, the first to Lebanon since 1990, in an angry reaction to the exclusion of its sportsmen from the Pan Arab Games.

The decision shattered recent moves that had been forging closer commercial ties between Iraq and Lebanon.

The Iraqi commerce ministry, quoted by the official news agency of Iraq, said, "The visit of the commercial and industrial delegation scheduled for August has been postponed without new date being fixed."

Two Lebanese trade delegations have visited Iraq in the last three months after the government decided to improve relations with the Gulf state, following pressure from industrialists.

Diplomatic ties between Beirut and Baghdad were severed following the 1994 Beirut killing of Talib Al-Suheil Al-Tamimi—an Iraqi dissident—which led to the arrest of three Iraqi diplomats.

The diplomats were freed last January on the orders of Boueiz.

Jaques Sarraf, the president of the Industrialists Association, revealed in February that the Association had secured the release of the diplomats after persuading Boueiz of the importance of improving trade links with Iraq.

But the ban preventing Iraqi athletes from participating in the Pan Arab Games has angered Baghdad, with Iraqi newspapers condemning both Kuwait, which originally called for Iraq's exclusion from the games, and the Lebanese government.

Kuwait has yet to forgive Iraq for its invasion of the emirate in l990. Kuwait is also one of the major financial sponsors of the reconstruction program.

Lebanon, caught in the middle, chose to side with its emirate ally and refused to allow Iraqi athletes into the country.

Although Iraq continues to be subject to a United Nations embargo, it has been permitted to sell 2 billion US dollars worth of oil every six months to raise money for food and humanitarian supplies. Lebanese businessmen have long valued renewing trade links with Iraq, which once accounted for 20 percent of Lebanon's exports.

Sarraf, Minister of Economy and Trade Yassin Jaber, and Adnan Qassar, the head of the Beirut chamber of commerce, have all supported to proposed trade links with Iraq.

They were unavailable for comment on July 14, as all three are out of the country.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi sports official on July 14 thanked Syria for allowing the protest to take place on its side of the border with Lebanon and slammed the Beirut government for not bothering to send an official to explain its position to the team.

"It's regrettable that not a single Lebanese official went to the border to clarify the situation," stated Hussien Said, a member of the team which returned to Baghdad over the weekend.

Please bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin. Apply for a sales or marketing job!