February 2001 World Headlines

Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - Web posted at 10:15:18 AM GMT

Iraq not pinning hopes on dialogue with UNAM

MAN - The Iraqi government said yesterday it "pinned no hopes" on its dialogue with the United Nations due to start later in the day in New York.

The newspaper Al-Thawra, organ of the ruling Baath Party, said in an editorial the talks between Foreign Minister Mohammad Said Sahaf and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan were designed to air Iraq's grievances and to draw the world's attention to "the Iraqi rights that had been deliberately ignored"."

"The most salient fact is that Iraq has been the only party that complied with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, whereas the Council itself has failed to show due respect to its resolutions," Al-Thawra said, according to the official Iraq News Agency (INA)."

"The Council did not honour its reciprocal commitments toward Iraq and failed to take any measures against the states that violated its resolutions, notably the United States and Britain and the ruling regimes in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey," the newspaper added The five countries had kept up their "conspiracy against Iraq and its sovereignty without any legal or moral deterrent, while the Security Council remained silent".

The paper was alluding to the air strike launched on Iraq on February 16 by US and British warplanes flying from bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey.

The Iraqi government has also rejected the right of the Britain and the US to fly almost daily sorties from the three states adjacent to Iraq in order to monitor the no-fly zones, which Baghdad said were forced on Iraq outside the jurisdiction of the Security Council resolutions.

- Nampa-Sapa-DPA