May 31, 2000
Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rashid said Wednesday that Baghdad would not cooperate with the new U.N. weapons commission to disarm Iraq unless sanctions are lifted and U.S. and British warplanes stop the military aggression against his country.
"Iraq's position is clear. Sanctions should be lifted and military aggression should be stopped before we can discuss anything else," the minister told a press conference in Baghdad.
He added that Iraq has nothing to do with the new weapons agency.
The U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was set up by the United Nations last December.
The U.N. agreed that if Iraq allows UNMOVIC to verify the destruction of weapons of mass destruction it would ease the economic sanctions imposed on Baghdad 10 years ago after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
The last group of U.N. arms inspectors, the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM), left Iraq on December 1998, before U.S.-British heavy strikes on Iraq to force Baghdad to cooperate with the commission.
UNSCOM inspectors were accused by Baghdad of spaying for the United States and since then they have not been allowed into the country.
U.S. and British warplanes continue patrolling the no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq. The zones were created in 1991 to protect minorities in these areas from the government in Baghdad, but Washington and London often strike at Iraqi facilities.
