Global Policy Forum

UN weapons inspectors will not be allowed back into Iraq, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan vowed in an interview with a Russian newspaper published Monday.

"Why do we need those spies in Washington's pay? The UN Security Council and the United States will never consent to lift sanctions against Iraq, but this way we will at least protect our security," Ramadan told the Vremya Novostei daily. "They were gathering intelligence information and left in 1998 to provoke more airstrikes against Iraq. They will not return, it is impossible, as long as we are alive," Ramadan pledged, urging an immediate lifting of all UN sanctions.

Ramadan also mocked Washington's "smart sanctions" campaign, aimed to ease restrictions on civilian products and tighten those on military equipment and technology, as "stillborn."

Russia reiterated during Ramadan's April visit to Moscow that it is seeking an end of the sanctions first imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Even though Baghdad had rejected Moscow's plan, Iraq considers Russian President Vladimir Putin as a valuable ally, who courts the Arab countries in an attempt to restore Russia's erstwhile influence in the region and undermine the US world domination, Ramadan said.

"Look how many Arab leaders visited Russia! Everyone feels that Putin has something that did not exist in Russia before," Ramadan said, adding that striving for a multipolar world is obviously Putin's priority. Ramadan visited Russia in late April, reaching no agreement on the plan to lift the sanctions, but developing new guidelines for economic cooperation between Moscow and Baghdad.