Some $500 million of Iraqi funds have been deposited into Lebanese banks and should soon be transferred to the US-led occupying forces in Baghdad, said Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.
Sitting untouched since April, the money was deposited into private Lebanese banks by the Iraqi central bank, the state-owned Rafidain bank and the Ministry of Oil. "We are in contact with the United Nations about the best way of solving the problem," Hariri told the Financial Times last week.
Iraq’s temporary finance minister Kamal Kilani denied that the funds in Lebanon belonged to members of the former Saddam Hussein regime, reported An Nahar.
A United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR), passed in May, requires all UN member states to freeze locally invested assets of the former Iraqi regime, Saddam Hussein, and other senior officials of the former Iraqi government, and their immediate family members and cause the transfer of those assets to the Development Fund for Iraq. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
