Iraq Sees U.S. Manipulation In Sanctions

Iraq "will deal with" a new Security Council resolution that makes sweeping changes to the U.N. sanctions regime, the information minister said Thursday, though the Iraqi leadership criticized the measure.

The Iraqi leadership portrayed the U.N. measure as American manipulation of the Security Council, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.

"Once again the Security Council, in its Resolution 1409, exposes its weakness and inability to face the American tendency toward harming Iraq," INA quoted a statement issued in a joint meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and the Regional Command of the ruling Baath party as saying.

The statement alone fell short of saying Iraq rejected or completely accepted the revamped sanctions resolution. But Iraq's Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, told INA that "Iraq will deal with Resolution 1409 regarding the renewal of the oil-for-food deal for another six months ... according to the memorandum of understanding signed by Iraq and the United Nations."

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to revamp sanctions, capping a yearlong effort by the United States and Britain to get more humanitarian goods to the Iraqi people and try to tighten military embargo on Baghdad. Now, most civilian goods are to be allowed into Iraq, but a 332-page checklist spells out civilian items with potential military use that require U.N. approval.

Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammad Al-Douri, had said earlier at U.N. headquarters in New York that the new goods review list will complicate rather than simplify delivery of humanitarian items and will harm Iraq's economy by blocking the import of agricultural, electrical and sanitation equipment. He stressed his government was "unhappy" with any resolution that didn't lift sanctions.

Tough U.N. sanctions were imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990, leading to the Gulf War. They can be lifted only after international inspectors certify Iraq has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad claims it has done so, but has not let inspectors into the country since 1998, saying sanctions must be lifted first.

Also on Thursday, an influential Iraqi state-run newspaper called the revamped sanctions an American attempt to prolong the economic embargo rather than to ease the suffering of Iraqis.

"Changing the U.N. party responsible for monitoring the flow of goods to Iraq will not end the evil and negative impact of the ongoing embargo imposed on our country since 1990," the Babil newspaper owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Odai said in a front-page editorial.

Babil accused the United States of trying to prolong sanctions on Iraq by creating additional measures in the sanctions regime that inflict more harm on the Iraqi people and don't consider their right to live a decent life. Furthermore, it said the Security Council resolution "is a breach to the U.N. charter because it neglects Iraq's right to self defense against any external attack."

Also on Thursday, the ruling Baath party newspaper al-Thawra labeled British Defense Minister, Geoffrey Hoon "another evil liar."

Hoon, referring to calls for the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq, told reporters Tuesday in Kuwait that it was important for the sake of international security to know "what is happening in Iraq as far as the development of weapons of mass destruction are concerned."

Al-Thawra said Iraq has no intention of threatening neighboring countries or world security.

"Hoon is under a big illusion if he thinks that the world could be deceived by his lies and deceptive tactics," it said.