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TITLE: Iraqi Minister Meets UN Security Council President, Comments on Embargo |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: Republic of Iraq Radio |
DATE: March 1, 2001 |
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Foreign Minister Muhammad Sa'id al-Sahhaf met with Ambassador Said Ben Mustapha, president of the [UN] Security Council and permanent Tunisian representative to the UN. In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency, the foreign minister said he gave a documented review of the Iraqi position on the relationship between Iraq and the Security Council. Iraq asked the Security Council to fulfil its obligations stipulated in relevant resolutions now that Iraq has fulfilled all its obligations as stipulated in Security Council resolutions. In statements to reporters at the conclusion of the meeting, Al-Sahhaf said he agreed with the Security Council president to meet with him again at the end of the current Iraqi-UN dialogue sessions. He added: The proposal that Iraq presented at the dialogue with the UN secretary-general incorporated a detailed review of Iraq's position over the past 10 years in order to find a way out of the crisis that the Security Council created when it adopted Resolution 1284. Asked about disarmament, the foreign minister said Iraq demands the implementation of Resolution 687 and demands that this resolution apply to the entire Middle East region, making it free of weapons of mass destruction. This should apply to everyone because only then can the continuous monitoring regime return to work in Iraq. Al-Sahhaf ridiculed the so-called "smart sanctions". He said: They call them smart, which means that since 1990 these sanctions have been stupid. This is an attempt to deceive the world public opinion as well as the Security Council. These sanctions are mainly intended to divert attention from what Iraq has achieved over the past 10 years. They are an attempt to reword Resolution 687 in order to overlook Iraq's legitimate right to have the embargo lifted. Al-Sahhaf explained that another series of dialogue sessions with the UN General Secretariat will be held at a later stage. For his part, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a brief statement to reporters that the talks with the Iraqi delegation were held in a good spirit and that he will brief the Security Council on the results of these talks, but he did not specify a time frame. In the same vein, Foreign Minister Muhammad Sa'id al-Sahhaf announced that arms inspectors will never return to Iraq again, even if the embargo is lifted. In statements to reporters before the start of the second dialogue session, he said that lifting the embargo must be unconditional because Iraq has fulfilled all its obligations towards the Security Council resolutions. He added: Paragraph 14 of Resolution 687 clearly stipulates that what applies to Iraq applies to other states in the region, meaning the Zionist entity as well as all the other states in the region. Al-Sahhaf said: The Zionist entity has a nuclear arsenal as well as an arsenal of other kinds of weapons. END |