Arabs are not compelled to implement anti-Iraq embargo, says lawyers head

The Arab states are not compelled to implement the embargo imposed on Iraq, President of the Arab Lawyers Union, Sabah Al-Mokhtar, said. Article 58 of the United Nations charter exempts any country from implementing a U.N. decision that goes against its economic and security interests, said Al-Mokhtar.

Al-Mokhtar participates in the pro-Iraq caravan, which is currently visiting Morocco part of a 10,000-km-long journey that will also cross Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Jordan, before reaching Baghdad.

The Journey, led by British Labor MP, George Gallawy, under the motto "Maryam Appeal: We Love the Iraqi people," is meant to denounce the anti-Iraq embargo, mobilize the international public opinion for the lifting of the sanctions and the halting of the British and American raids.

Maryam, whose name is used as a motto of the Caravan, is a child who suffers from Leukemia, apparently caused by the raids against Iraq.

Al-Mokhtar said that several Arab states suffer from the embargo, and that the slaughter of Iraqi children is the slaughter of all Arab children. He said he was surprised by the decision of Arab states to enforce the sanctions, while they do not respect other U.N. resolutions.

Iraq already implements 99 % of U.N. resolutions, he said, before calling on Arab states to materially back the Iraqi people without paying much attention to prior permission of the U.N.

The embargo against Iraq is a sort of terrorism exercised by the major superpowers who seek to achieve their political ambitions, he said.

British MP Gallaway said, for his part, that Britain and the USA are accountable for the present situation in Iraq and that the countries who keep silent on these ordeals are accomplices.

The MP lauded the position of the Moroccan people vis-a-vis the Iraqi people. "You (Moroccans) adopted the clearest attitude regarding the issue," he said.

He insisted that the Caravan also seeks to show that the majority of British citizens are against the Western policies against Iraq.

The British MP conferred with several Moroccan officials, including Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, who underlined that the Caravan puts legitimate pressure on the international community to lift the unfair sanctions on Iraq.