Iraq opposes projects submitted by the UN Security Council
Iraq has reiterated on Friday its categorical rejection of all projects submitted to the UN Security Council aimed at monitoring Iraqi weapons. Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf said these projects were prepared without the knowledge of Baghdad.
He stressed Iraq's unwavering stand on the need to lift the sanctions imposed on Iraq and to compensate Iraq for the material and human losses inflicted on Iraq as a result of the continued US - British attacks and the need to eliminate the "no-fly zones" imposed on the northern and southern parts of Iraq.
Britain proposed the suspension of the embargo only on Iraqi exports for 130 days to be renewed if Iraq commits itself to demands pertaining to disarmament. This project is backed by Holland, Slovenia, Argentina, Brazil and the US. But Russia, China and France agree to suspend the sanctions against the establishment of a new monitoring system to control the Iraqi weapons.
On the other hand, the Dutch Syblout company, which monitors the flow of Iraqi oil at the directives of the UN announced that Iraq and in the framework of attempting to pump extra amounts of oil is using techniques that may destroy the oil pipeline systems and by the end result in reducing production unless new oil industry equipment is imported.
In a statement released on Thursday, the company said that a program for pumping water in the oil wells with the help of chemical materials has increased production in the southern Iraqi oil fields to 160,000 barrels per day in the period between August 1998 and May 1999. The report said that this way of producing oil would lead in the long run in the deterioration in the volume of production, noting that some 54 oil wells in southern Iraq were covered with water since the middle of 1998 and are not expected to work again. The recommendations of the Dutch company came in response to the resolutions of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to present a report on the status of the Iraqi oil fields with the objective of determining the spare parts that Baghdad is permitted to import.
The Iraqi Oil Ministry, however, is seeking to produce three million of barrels of oil per day by December 1999, 3.2 million barrels daily by March of the year 2000 and 3.5 million oil barrels daily by the end of the year 2000.