Iraq Offers to Cooperate with UN after Lifting Sanctions

Published April 26th, 2000 - 03:00 GMT

Iraq will be ready to cooperate with the UN Security Council once the decade-old embargo has been lifted, Ath-Thawra Iraqi newspaper said Wednesday.

"Iraq is not refusing to cooperate with the Security Council and is not the stubborn and aggressive country it is made out to be in the Western media," it added.

It said Baghdad was ready "to resolve all the outstanding issues but they must first lift the embargo and deal with Iraq as the sole party to have been wronged by this whole affair".

While rejecting Security Council resolution 1248, it said Baghdad "has the right to discuss all the details of this resolution and not to be treated as an accused person who has to serve his sentence, especially when the judge is the enemy".

The daily was referring to the United States, a strong advocate of keeping in place the sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Resolution 1248, which Iraq has rejected, calls for its full cooperation with a new arms control panel in return for a renewable suspension of the sanctions regime.

"Iraq has already cooperated with the United Nations and bowed to its resolutions, but all it has got in return is more unjust resolutions ... without any recognition of Iraq's cooperation," Ath-Thawra said -(AFP)