The decade-old sanctions regime imposed on Iraq by the United Nations after its invasion of Kuwait could be lifted in 2001, an official Iraqi newspaper said Monday. "The new year will see, God willing, the lifting of the embargo forever," said Babel, headed by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday.
The paper based its optimism on the weakening of sanctions in 2000, with the resumption of flights into Baghdad, the reopening of embassies and the influx of foreign businessmen into Iraq. "Iraq's logic, which argues that the embargo will never be lifted by a UN Security Council decision, is now shared by other countries convinced this embargo is about to disappear," Babel said.
The government daily Al-Jumhuriya, for its part, said: "The new year will be different than the previous one especially when it comes to breaking the embargo. In seeing in 2001, we beg God to grant every Iraqi's wishes to see the unjust sanctions disappear," said Youth Television, also headed by Uday Hussein.
Baghdad and the United Nations are expected to reopen a dialogue later this month, more than a year after a UN Security Council resolution, introduced in December 1999, offered a suspension of sanctions in return for Iraq's cooperation with a new arms control regime. — (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
