Iraq criticized the UN "oil for food" program on Sunday, December 2 while also ruling out the risk of a US strike against its country, ministers were quoted as saying. Just 24 hours after Baghdad accepted the extension of the program by the UN security council, Iraqi Health Minister Umaid Medhat Mubarak said the UN oil for food program "has not contributed to improving health and food conditions for the Iraqi people but has become a burden," the IRNA agency reported.
Mubarak also condemned "the stubborness of America and its ally Great Britain who have continued to delay contracts (signed by Iraq under the program) and the arrival of medical and food products and have extended the embargo to cause further suffering for the Iraqi people."
On Saturday, Iraq accepted the extension of the "oil for food" program adopted on Thursday by the United Nations security council until May 30 2002. The program has been in force since late 1996 and authorizes Baghdad to sell crude oil to buy food and medicines, as an exception to the embargo to which Iraq has been subjected since its ill-fated 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Meanwhile Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri was in Damascus Sunday and ruled out a US strike against Iraq, following a one-hour meeting with his Syrian counterpart Faruq Al-Shara. "We do not expect (US strikes) as we are not involved. Those who talk of strikes are the Zionist press and pro-Zionist press in the United States and certain officials linked to Israel," said Sabri in a statement.
US President George W. Bush made an implicit threat to Iraq on November 26 of a military strike if it continues to refuse to submit to international inspections of its military arsenal. But US Secretary of State Colin Powell later tried to allay fears of an imminent attack. Syria has expressed its opposition to any such strike on Iraq. Information Minister Adnan Umran said Saturday that it would be aimed at serving Israel.
For his part, Shara said last Tuesday: "We reject any threat against an Arab country." "Any strike against an Arab country, wherever it comes from, will bring on endless problems," he told journalists, questioning him on threats made by Washington, particularly towards Iraq. Sabri arrived in Damascus late Saturday, and will leave Sunday for Qatar. — (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
