Iraqi deputy premier calls for Arab support to break siege

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz criticized the submission of the Arab states to the US in the Middle East and especially urged Iraq's bordering Arab states to break the embargo imposed on Iraq.

In a speech he delivered before the fifth conference of the "Arab People's Forces" currently being held in Baghdad, Aziz said the "embargo imposed on Iraq is in effect at an Arab decision before being an international resolution issued by the UN. thereby has to be broken by the Arab states."

Aziz added that the sanctions imposed on Iraq for seven years are not in line with international resolutions, rather the views of the U.S., noting that the U.S. is called upon to implement U.N. resolutions according to its own explanations rather than the the U.N. explanation.

Aziz stated that Iraq has fulfilled all its obligations in the context of the U.N. resolution to cease fire in the Gulf War and it is "ripe time now to lift the sanctions imposed on Iraq."

The conferees held a demonstration as an objection to the sanctions. They burnt an Israeli flag in front of the UNDP headquarters,. Several demonstrators denounced the policy of the U.S. administration against Iraq and urged the Arab states to immediately break the embargo imposed on Iraq. The demonstrators arrived at the headquarters of the UNDP just five minutes of a collective funeral for 52 Iraqi children has passed in. The children died as a result of shortage in medicines and medical equipment.