Iraq criticizes Saudi initiative to alleviate embargo

The Iraqi daily Babel on Monday criticized the Saudi initiative to alleviate the embargo imposed on Iraq and described it as a political maneuver aimed at absorbing the anger of the Arab masses following the US and British attacks in December on Iraq.

The paper added that the "Saudi declaration" takes the shape of a political maneuver, prior to the convening of a possible summit which will be debated during the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers due to be held on January 24.

Meanwhile, the London -based al-Hayat daily said that this initiative has won the support of the Arab Gulf states during their foreign ministers' meeting in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, adding that the initiative will also win the support of the Cairo meeting.

Earlier, the Saudi news agency announced that Riyadh will seek to alleviate the embargo imposed on Iraq in order to eliminate the suffering of the Iraqi people, but this alleviation should not be conducive to backing the Iraqi government.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz asserted yesterday that his country absolutely refuses the Saudi suggestion for uplifting the international economic sanctions that have been imposed on Iraq for more than eight years.

Aziz described the proposal as an attempt to cover for the recent US - British attacks on Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Said al-Sahaf stated that the Saudi proposal is contradictory.