A senior Pakistani trade official visited Iraq on Friday October 12 at the head a business delegation with the aim of arranging cereal exports, according to the state-run media. Tariq Ikram, who holds a ministerial-level post as head of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), arrived in the Iraqi capital despite the UN air embargo on the country, the official IRNA news agency said.
He was quoted as saying he was looking at the possibility of increasing cereal exports to Iraq as well as boosting general economic cooperation. The United Nations imposed a trade embargo on Iraq in 1990 after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, which led to the 1991 Gulf War.
Islamabad has indicated that Ikram is specifically hoping to convince Iraqi food authorities to reconsider controls which have blocked 62,000 tons on wheat at the Gulf port of Om Al-Qasr.
The visit comes amid the US-led strikes against Afghanistan, which are supported by Pakistan but opposed by US enemy Iraq. — (AFP, Bagdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
