US Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to silence Arab anger and seek support to maintain the embargo imposed on Iraq during his whirlwind visit through the Middle East, a high-ranking Iraqi official said Tuesday, February 27.
"The trip was designed to absorb the anger of the Arab masses against upholding sanctions in Iraq and the US position on the Palestinian issue," under-secretary of state for foreign affairs Nabil Nejm told Al-Rafidain weekly newspaper.
Nejm slammed the newly appointed Powell for repeating a "new lie" that Iraq was "threatening children" in the region. "It is deplorable that the country that pretends to run the world is lying," Nejm said, accusing the United States of looking to "hold back changes that have happened in Iraq's favor over the past two years."
Iraq has witnessed an erosion of the crippling sanctions regime imposed on it after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
International flights into Baghdad have resumed, several countries have reopened embassies and the February 16 US-British air strikes around Baghdad that left three dead and 30 wounded were met with widespread international condemnation.
Denouncing the "persistence of the US hostility towards Iraq", Nejm said Washington "will try to intensify efforts in the coming days to contain these changes."
At the end of his tour of the region Monday, Powell said he had found a consensus in the region for modified sanctions that would ease restrictions on civilian goods but strengthen those on military products.
And a senior US State Department official said Washington hoped to be able to have a proposal on modifying at least some UN sanctions on Iraq ahead of the next Arab League meeting in Jordan on March 27.
Baghdad has yet to comment on these statements, coming just days after it refused US-British proposals to introduce "smart" sanctions. — (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
