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TITLE: Baghdad Protests Against UN Blocking of Meteorology |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: BridgeNews Amman |
DATE: February 5, 2001 |
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The Iraqi government on Monday protested to the United Nations the suspension of six contracts concluded earlier under the oil-for-aid plan for rehabilitation of the Iraqi weather forecasting organs. In a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said the deals were blocked by the Committee 661 in response to "baseless pretexts invoked by the U.S. representative," the official Iraq News Agency reported. "The appliances, contracted by the Iraqi Meteorology Department in the seventh round of the oil-for-food program, are ordinary civilian equipment that all countries of the world possess and use for civilian purposes," said Aziz, who is currently deputizing for Foreign Minister Mohammad Said Sahaf. Aziz said the current Iraqi weather forecasting equipment were "non-operative due either to the lack of spare parts or failure to keep up with the international advancement taking place in the sphere of meteorology." The oil-for-aid program allows Iraq to export the equivalent of U.S. $5.26 billion of crude oil every six months, with 65% of the proceeds used to finance the purchase of badly needed food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. However, the United States repeatedly said that the United Nations should not approve contracts involving materials of dual uses, which can be utilized for military purposes. END |