June 29, 2000
Iraq is pushing fellow Islamic nations to support its call for a lifting of United Nations sanctions but is getting little backing so far, a report said Thursday. The Star newspaper said Iraq was impatient at lack of support from the 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), whose foreign ministers are holding a four-day conference here. The sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Iraqi delegation member Saadoon Zubaydi was quoted as saying that 10 years or so after the Gulf War the OIC still refused to understand his country's plight. Saadoon said Baghdad had made every effort to comply with UN resolutions and destroy its weapons even though arms inspections were just a pretext for spying.
"We have done everything at the expense of our children dying, our country becoming poor and the whole nation being devastated," he was quoted as saying. "We hope to get the OIC to support our call for the UN sanctions to be lifted." Iraqi delegates were not immediately available for comment on the report.
The OIC, headquartered in Saudi Arabia, represents all the Arab states which went to war against Iraq in 1991 under a US-led coalition to drive it out of Kuwait.
A draft resolution to be discussed by ministers gives Baghdad little comfort. It is entitled: "The consequences of Iraq's aggression against the State of Kuwait and the necessity for Iraq to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions." Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Iraq had expressed reservations about the draft. He said many IOC members had raised the question of lifting sanctions but this is not mentioned in the draft resolution.
It expresses sympathy with the Iraqi people but calls for full cooperation with Security Council resolutions to alleviate the suffering of the people. The draft "emphasises the necessity of Iraq's respect for the security, territorial integrity and political independence of Kuwait and stresses the inevitability of Iraq's express and clear admission that the invasion and occupation of Kuwait is a violation of Arab, Islamic and international conventions and legitimacy..."
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